How far will CSA backdate?

briggy

My first baby is due on Tuesday and my husband walked out on us in March. At the minute he is paying towards the mortgage (in joint names). He is already paying CSA for a child from his first marriage but has said that there is no point in me making a claim as he won't be able to pay it, so I have to tread very carefully.

I really don't want to get CSA involved but the way he is behaving at the minute I know he won't stick to a private arrangement. So would time start ticking as soon as I made the claim or can a claim be backdated.

I hope the above makes sense.

CSA_Help

No child no maintenance.

Once the child is born you can get the ball rolling

Ps good luck for Tuesday

DX2

Be very careful if he has to start paying child support he may well not bother paying the mortgage. If he is paying child support for another child you and she will get 10%.

missbunbury

The CSA can only make him pay from the date that they make him aware of the claim, either by phone or by sending out a maintenance enquiry form to a confident address. So it'll only ever go from a point shortly after you start a claim, which you won't be able to do until you get a child benefit reference number to prove the baby exists.

With his other claim, what they will do is reassess both cases together and apportion the relevant amount (a maximum of 25% of his net income) between the two mums. So for example if he currently pays 20% for 2 kids by the other lady, they will reassess him at 25% total across both case, and she will get two thirds and you one third of the total amount. This is assuming there is no regular overnight care of any of the children and that his other case is new rules (started after March 2003.) If his other case is older, then it'll be currently working under different rules and will need to be converted over to new rules, with phasing applied so his payment to the other mum changes gradually in steps.

A private arrangement has the benefit of being possible right from birth, or even earlier if you both agree. The main disadvantage is that it won't be legally enforceable at all so if he stops paying you will need to start the CSA process at that point. If he is PAYE employed, the CSA can deduct the money from his wages if necessary, if he's self-employed it's a bit more complicated and can drag on a lot longer if he is non-compliant.

To be honest, I would in most cases suggest people try to make a private arrangement work, but this is only really possible if all involved are willing to be open and honest. If you know what he earns, use the CSA's online calculator to get an idea of how much you will get through them (remember to put in the total number of kids not just yours) and use this figure as a starting point for negotiating something that seems fair to you both.

missbunbury

Also bear in mind if he keeps paying the mortgage then the CSA will take that into consideration under a variation - for every £1 a week (after the first £15) he pays will be deducted from his assessable income if he asks them to do so. So as an example, if he earns £300pw net and pays £400 a month for the mortgage then his assessable income will go down to £222.70pw.

Steve40_2

missbunbury wrote: »

The CSA can only make him pay from the date that they make him aware of the claim, either by phone or by sending out a maintenance enquiry form to a confident address. So it'll only ever go from a point shortly after you start a claim, which you won't be able to do until you get a child benefit reference number to prove the baby exists.

With his other claim, what they will do is reassess both cases together and apportion the relevant amount (a maximum of 25% of his net income) between the two mums. So for example if he currently pays 20% for 2 kids by the other lady, they will reassess him at 25% total across both case, and she will get two thirds and you one third of the total amount. This is assuming there is no regular overnight care of any of the children and that his other case is new rules (started after March 2003.) If his other case is older, then it'll be currently working under different rules and will need to be converted over to new rules, with phasing applied so his payment to the other mum changes gradually in steps.

A private arrangement has the benefit of being possible right from birth, or even earlier if you both agree. The main disadvantage is that it won't be legally enforceable at all so if he stops paying you will need to start the CSA process at that point. If he is PAYE employed, the CSA can deduct the money from his wages if necessary, if he's self-employed it's a bit more complicated and can drag on a lot longer if he is non-compliant.

To be honest, I would in most cases suggest people try to make a private arrangement work, but this is only really possible if all involved are willing to be open and honest. If you know what he earns, use the CSA's online calculator to get an idea of how much you will get through them (remember to put in the total number of kids not just yours) and use this figure as a starting point for negotiating something that seems fair to you both.

Sorry to butt in but it is the CSA who cause most of the problems with private arrangements why dont you read my thread NO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THERE CLAIMS . Also it took me 2 years to get a case converted so that 2 PWC's could benefit from 20% of my wage the exscuse was that the case was to complicated for the CSCS to handle and it had to be done clerrically . It was the independant case examiners intervention that finally got it converted .that said the 2nd pwc did receive £3k compensation for payments they had caused her to lose through there incompetence.

briggy

Thanks for all your answers. I think that as long as he keeps contributing to the mortgage we'll be fine, but at the minute I can't depend on anything from him. If he doesn't we'll probably lose the house which he doesn't care about (as he's got somewhere free to live) but hey ho.

I just found out before he left that he had major financial problems including a huge unpaid CSA bill, and I've no idea why as he was earning really good money and we were certainly not living beyond our means (well I wasn't). Also he's self employed so easily "hides" money