can csa reduce payments to cover travel expenses

odgious

Hi all,

I'm a NRP, recently moved from Ireland to the UK to be with my new wife. I ex wife and my daughter live in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I currently contribute £300pm towards my daughters upkeep, which was amicably agreed and is in our divorce agreement. Since I've relocated to the UK, i've been travelling back to ireland about once a month to see my daughter. This costs about £250 a time, with flights, car parking, car hire, fuel refill etc. All in all, this is costing me £550 and I am unable to contribute towards my current wife which is putting our relationship under a lot of stress. My child support agreement is not with CSA or anyone else, but in common law/sense, should I be able to reduce my maintenance payments somewhat?
Thanks
Kieran

rozmister

Swagger1980 wrote: »

Take the CSA payment workd out on the higher level of take home and that leaves me with £831 or so. My rent is £575 and bills and debts are £190 so that leaves £66 to buy food and clothes every month. I do without clothes most months. If someone on beneifits gets that every week how do you think that is affordable?

Someone on benefits doesn't get £66 for food and clothes a week they get that to cover their bills, debts, food and clothes. And if their housing benefit doesn't cover their full rent they also have to supplement it out of that £66 a week. Plus they have to be over 25 to receive that much; under 25 is £55 a week.

You are right though that amount of money for everything; whether it's benefits or wages after CSA and travel doesn't lend itself to comfortable living!

clearingout

odgious wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm a NRP, recently moved from Ireland to the UK to be with my new wife. I ex wife and my daughter live in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I currently contribute £300pm towards my daughters upkeep, which was amicably agreed and is in our divorce agreement. Since I've relocated to the UK, i've been travelling back to ireland about once a month to see my daughter. This costs about £250 a time, with flights, car parking, car hire, fuel refill etc. All in all, this is costing me £550 and I am unable to contribute towards my current wife which is putting our relationship under a lot of stress. My child support agreement is not with CSA or anyone else, but in common law/sense, should I be able to reduce my maintenance payments somewhat?
Thanks
Kieran

I guess the first question is how does £300 a month compare with what you would have to pay if you reduce maintenance payments and your ex goes to the CSA (which she will be perfectly at liberty to do)? There is a calculator on the CSA website.

How is your ex managing financially? How much of a contribution is the £300 to her monthly budget? Is your daughter going to have to go without if you cut down the maintenance?

Ultimately, you have chosen to move a distance away from your daughter and I personally believe you should have allowed for that in your budget when moving. It sounds like your wife isn't accepting of your past (apologies if I've read that wrong) which is not a great position to be in and so you need to sort it out as amicably as you can with both 'sides'. Your new wife needs to accept you have financial responsibilites towards your child and unless you are currently paying considerably over the odds, the chances are this situation isn't going to be resolved the way you perhaps want it to be. I always ask, why on earth would you want to be with a man who puts his new life first and ignores his children? Sadly, there are all too many women out there who seem to think that's acceptable. But it's a question who should put to your wife if she is resistent...

Morals aside, another way of trying to resolve this is cutting your travel costs. Can you pay for your daughter to visit you during school holidays, for example? Maybe a couple of longer visits to you? Would your ex be willing to let you have her, say, for 2 out of 3 half terms, a week at Xmas and perhaps 3 weeks in the summer? That would only be 4 lots of travel to pay for rather than 12...Do you have room for her at your new home and is your new wife willing to have her stay?

You have a difficult situation here which you need to handle carefully. There is potential for it to go horribly wrong and for contact with your daughter to become difficult and for your relationship to deteriorate rapidly, particularly if she is of an age where any cut in maintenance means she loses her dancing lessons or mobile phone top ups!

Fission

pixiemnx wrote: »

My partner is the NRP and we travel every other weekend a total of 420 miles to collect and return his daughter from the PWC. ... Aparently if you have the child for one night a year its classed as shared care and you only get the discount (£5 a month in our case) for this. We were told that you cannot get both and ultimatly its the CSA's decission as to which you receive.

There's some truth in that, but it's worth pointing out two things.

First, you cannot and do not get a shared care allowance for looking after a child for one night per year. Under the current rules, the non-resident parent has to look after a child for a minimum of fifty-two nights a year for shared care to apply. If he has the child to stay overnight for at least 52 but not more than 103 nights per year, the due maintenance is reduced by one-seventh. For 104 nights to 155 nights (inclusive) the reduction is two-sevenths.

If the parent has his child for less than 52 nights a year, he does not get a shared care reduction at all.

Secondly, if the 52 night rule is satisfied, and if a share care reduction is therefore appropriate, the CSA have to apply it. Neither the non-resident parent nor they can waive it. The law has to be complied with.

The upshot of that second part is important. The travel costs variation regulation does contain a provision to the effect that if there is a shared care reduction, a variation for travel costs may not be awarded. But the idea that the CSA have some sort of discretion over which one applies is just wrong. If shared exists, it has to be allowed for. The only non-resident parent who can get a variation for travel costs is one who does not get a shared care reduction.