Frustrated with CSA

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Hi Supersavershal

Am in exactly the same position as you, daughter has left full time education (have confirmed this myself with the college today), informed CB of this multiple times, yet the mantra from CSA is always that "if CB is being paid, maintenance is due" :-$

One worrying point about your last post though...if the "child" is claiming to be in full-time education rather then employment, CB (and consequently child support) is payable up until the 20th birthday, not 19th (subject to some caveats, notably that the "child" must be registered for a course before their 19th birthday). Had this confirmed by Child Benefit yesterday - the HMRC website has also been updated in the last couple of days with the new age limit...

supersavershal

Oh God, dont think we can cope with being tied into child support for another 12 months! Do CB ask for proof of the child attending college.My step daughter left college in May and works full time.?

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Unfortunately we've yet to find out exactly how to convince CB or CSA that someone is/is not attending college. It seems that actually calling the college and asking (as we've done) is beyond them.

And yeah, I understand your frustration, having been counting down the months to 19th birthday, finding out this new piece of information was something of a blow :-$

sarflee

Child maintenance is payable all the time that Child Benefit is being paid and the child is:

• aged under 16; or
• under 19 and in full-time non-advanced education

The definition of full time education is more than 12 hours a week of study on a course up to and including A level standard. Some examples of non-advanced education are

According to this statement from the CSA website the child has to be UNDER 19 to be paid CSA.

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Hi sarflee, yep, CSA website still reads as above. CB website used to have a very similar statement about CB, which now reads:

How long can we keep paying Child Benefit?

Once your child turns 16 we can carry on paying Child Benefit for them as long as they are classed as a 'qualifying young person'. This means that we can keep paying Child Benefit for them until 31 August after their 16th birthday, and after this date we can only keep on paying you if one of the following applies:

• they are under 20 and in relevant education or training
• they are 16 or 17 and are registered for work, education or training with an approved body
• they have left school, relevant education or training after 31 August following their 16th birthday

Spoke to Child Benefit advice line last night and they confirmed that if they're paying CB, CSA will still demand Child Support :-$

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Meant to add: this change seems to be percolating its way through the system, am expecting the CSA's website to be updated at some point :-$

sarflee

Child benefit has been payable until 20 for a few years now however I know that CSA currently stops at 19 at the latest. I think there may be plans to bring it line with CB but not as yet, or so I have been told by CSA. They always give so many different answers it's impossible to respect/believe anything they say.

sarflee

I've just emailed the CSA for an answer as I find they are usually quite quick and reliable info provided.

f-stop

Yeah, lady at CB made the point that the 20 age limit isn't new, but the update to the website recently meant she'd answered the same question many times this week!

"reliable info provided"? are we talking about the same CSA?!?!? can't say i've had the same experience, seems that the answer you get depends on who you speak to, day of the week, phase of the moon etc etc :-$

sarflee

I think that's the thing, I find if you make them put it in writing they possibly check it a bit more thoroughly before providing an answer.