maintance

pdgolfer

hi im divorsed dad and only see my grils every other weekend ...ive just resently got my own council house so the girls can stay over i dont earn a great deal of money a month but my ex has taken me to csa and they r telling me i have to pay her 260 a month at that amount i wont be able to live and pay bills i was paying her 200 but she has desided she wants more ........advise please as i my have to give up work .

Found_true_love

pdgolfer wrote: »

hi im divorsed dad and only see my grils every other weekend ...ive just resently got my own council house so the girls can stay over i dont earn a great deal of money a month but my ex has taken me to csa and they r telling me i have to pay her 260 a month at that amount i wont be able to live and pay bills i was paying her 200 but she has desided she wants more ........advise please as i my have to give up work .

How many children are there?

The calculations are based arround your net income (if you are PAYE) that is after tax and NI any any contributions that you pay into a pension.

If you are earning more than £200 per week (after tax ni etc.) then they will take from you 15% if there is one child, 20% two and 25% three.

They dont take into account any of your other liabilities (ie rent council tax, bills etc) so in some circumstances you may be better off unemployed (JSA), rack up the benefits, get help with housing and council tax benefit, and a CSA assesment of paying your ex a flat rate of £5 per week.

I dont suggest that you deliberately do this, but its just an interesting situation that the CSA cause and therefore by definition the Government, cos its them that set it all up in the first place.

You will get a good understanding of how things work and how to work things in and to your favour on this forum, however offer to mum a private agreement and as mature and reasonable adults you should come up with a solution thats right for both of you.

But I bet she wouldn't do that...............:beer:

Donedoingdebt

Firstly, make sure that you're claiming whatever allowances are due to you such as single dweller's 25% council tax allowance if you're living alone.

Check out the CSA calculator on
https://secureonline.dwp.gov.uk/csa/v2/en/calculate-maintenance.asp to check out if their assessment is correct.

Don't forget to include the number of overnight stays your girls stay over with you.

Found_true_love

Oh forgot to mention if the children stay with you overnight for between 54 and 103 night you assesment is reduced by 1/7th

If the overnights stays are between 104- 155 the 2/7ths reduction is made.

That is why so many PWC (who are in a special catagory) refuse to let the children stay with the NRP so much, they loose out on the ££££££

pdgolfer

we had an agreement were i pay her 200 which was fine with me but just resently she has got in to dedt and ows 2000 so she has said she wants more there r 2 girls do they take overtime in to account as it is not guarentied cause my wages r made up with overtime .

Donedoingdebt

Yes they will take all overtime into account if it shows on the 2 payslips that you've supplied to them.

It doesn't matter to the CSA whether she's got herself into debt or not. The figure they come up with will be arrived at by a legal formula, along the lines that have been shown earlier, that is applied to all cases.

Found_true_love

pdgolfer wrote: »

we had an agreement were i pay her 200 which was fine with me but just resently she has got in to dedt and ows 2000 so she has said she wants more there r 2 girls do they take overtime in to account as it is not guarentied cause my wages r made up with overtime .

Start out by working out you basic weekly pay (forget overtime for now). The deduct 25% from the whole ammount (this will be roughly your toital tax and Ni reduced income including allowances)

Then from this amount work out what 20% of that will be reduce that amount by 1/7th and that is what you will be liable to pay PWC under a CSA calculation.

I stress forget your overtime, this the PWC will have to deal with as a variation, as it will change from year to year, it should be worked out in arrears and then paid up in the following year.

chall1964

pdgolfer wrote: »

we had an agreement were i pay her 200 which was fine with me but just resently she has got in to dedt and ows 2000 so she has said she wants more there r 2 girls do they take overtime in to account as it is not guarentied cause my wages r made up with overtime .

Averaged earnings over the relevant period are used to calculate CM. This includes O/T.

If you have any other source of income ie Tax Credits, this can also be included.

Donedoingdebt

Found_true_love wrote: »

I stress forget your overtime, this the PWC will have to deal with as a variation, as it will change from year to year, it should be worked out in arrears and then paid up in the following year.

Sorry, this is incorrect. If overtime is included on the 2 monthly payslips provided, then this WILL automatically be included in the assessable income; nothing to do with variations.

If the OP feels he has recently worked more overtime than usual, then he can request that the CSA accepts payslips up to a 12 month period so the overtime can be averaged out over the year.

Obviously, this doesn't help the OP much if this is regular overtime & is needed to live on.

Found_true_love

Donedoingdebt wrote: »

Sorry, this is incorrect. If overtime is included on the 2 monthly payslips provided, then this WILL automatically be included in the assessable income; nothing to do with variations.

If the OP feels he has recently worked more overtime than usual, then he can request that the CSA accepts payslips up to a 12 month period so the overtime can be averaged out over the year.

Obviously, this doesn't help the OP much if this is regular overtime & is needed to live on.

This is the problem, if the assesment is carried out when he was working good overtime it will be alot higher than normal, so in the two months he does reduced overtime immidiately put in those payslips and ask for a variation yourself and the new circumstance will be your reduced income, that will mean paying less maintenance. Then you can notify of an "average" position when you feel that over a period of time you are working "normally" If that makes sense

If this sounds like I am teaching him to play the system then so be it, but his alternative it to quit his job?

Is that a better position for him to be trying to support his children, much better that he pays what he can afford rather than it cripple him and he feels that his only alternative is to quit!!!!!!!

Donedoingdebt

A variation is a change from the normal assessment formula.

All the OP has to do is notify the CSA by phone on the first day of the first week that overtime is reduced/stopped & follow this up with written confirmation & state an intention of supplying the new monthly payslips as & when they arrive. This way, any reassessment will be backdated to the date of the phone call. If you do not notify them as soon as the overtime reduces then the reassessment will not be backdated to before the payslips were received by the CSA.

This will be classed as a reassessment or a revision. It's the standard formula, but based on new information.

Similarly, you do not have to provide them with a projected average net income. Simply pay the new amount until requested by the CSA to provide updated information. This may not be for a few years or when requested by the PWC.