Which benefit are the CSA not allowed to take from

surfbabe10

I have just had another letter from the CSA saying I wont receive a penny. Apparantly my ex is on a certain benefit that they are not allowed to take any money from! His wife is working but I have been told they dont take her wages into account. Does anyone know which benefits they are not allowed to touch. He has been trying for years to avoid paying any maintenance and it looks like he has succeeded. He has even used the excuse his dad had died and he had to pay for the funeral, his dad is alive and well and working at our local hospital!!!

DX2

The flat rate of child maintenance is £5 a week - no matter how many children are involved.
The non-resident parent pays a flat rate for child maintenance if:

• their net weekly income is between £5 and £100, or
• they or their partner who they live with gets Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income based Employment and Support Allowance or Pension Credit, or
• they are getting one of the following benefits:
  • contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
  • State Retirement Pension
  • Incapacity Benefit
  • Carer's Allowance
  • Widowed Mother’s Allowance, Widowed Parent's Allowance, Widow's Pension
  • Severe Disablement Allowance
  • Industrial Injuries Benefit
  • Maternity Allowance
  • a training allowance approved by the Department for Work and Pensions
  • Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments
  • a War Disablement or War Widow’s Pension
  • Bereavement Allowance
  • a social security benefit paid by a country outside the United Kingdom.

Non-resident parents who pay the flat rate because they receive a benefit, pension or allowance will pay no child maintenance if they share the care of a qualifying child for at least 52 nights a year. Non-resident parents who pay the flat rate because they have net weekly income of £100 or less have no further reduction because of shared care and they continue to pay £5.
An exception to this rule is if a non-resident parent is liable for child maintenance to more than one parent with care, but does not share the care of all the qualifying children. If this is the case, the non-resident parent will still have to pay the share of the child maintenance due to any parent with care with whom there are no shared care arrangements.

http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/setup/benefit-income.asp

surfbabe10

I am more confused now. He has does not see his son at all so that wont affect anything. Which other benefit could he be on for it to be a nil payment. He has 2 children with his wife who as far as I know he lives with. Surely I should get a least the minimum of £5 per week.

Soubrette

Do any of his children have special needs? Could he be at home as a carer?

Did you ask the CSA and they refused to tell you?

I have a friend who's ex decided to become the house husband to his new wife's two children (not his) and there was nothing my friend could do as he has no income at assess. Rightly so it is not the NRPP responsibility to look after someone else's child but it seems the NRP in this case could duck his responsibilities to his own three children by looking after someone else's child :mad:

The only slight comfort is that in the long run he has made himself pretty much unemployable like any other person who takes 20 years out of the job market so to avoid CSA he's lost a lot more money over all (he is educated to a PhD or Masters in I believe engineering).

shell_542

The nil rate means that the non-resident parent does not have to
pay any child maintenance. This rate may be applied if they:

• have a net weekly income of less than £5

• are students in full-time education (doing a course at
a recognised school or college where they have at least
12 hours’ tuition a week)

• are under 16 years old (and so for child maintenance
purposes are a child themselves)

• are in prison, or

• live in a care home or independent hospital (or equivalent
services in Scotland) and are getting help with the fees.

In these situations, the parent with care can apply for the child
maintenance to be increased if the non-resident parent has other
weekly income of more than £100 that we would normally take
into account.

If the non-resident parent has a net weekly income of less than
£5, they don’t have to pay child maintenance and the parent with
care cannot apply for an increase.

zzzLazyDaisy

As far as I know, DLA is totally disregarded for CSA purposes. So if his only income is DLA, then he wouldn't pay anything.

JulietAmber_2

surfbabe10 wrote: »

I am more confused now. He has does not see his son at all so that wont affect anything. Which other benefit could he be on for it to be a nil payment. He has 2 children with his wife who as far as I know he lives with. Surely I should get a least the minimum of £5 per week.

If they are receiving child tax credits for these 2 children then even if he isn't working, the CSA will take this as his income. For 2 children, I think that's about £110 a week (could be wrong). So you should be receiving a percentage of that.
You need to ask the CSA to check because some NRPs don't admit that they are receiving this.

surfbabe10

Thankyou for the replies. As far as I am aware he is not on disability benefit. The CSA wont give me any information at all. Occassionally when you ring you fall lucky and get someone helpful but most of the time I get someone who just fobs you off as quick as possible! I would of thought with his wife working (she just gone back after maternity leave) that they would be receiving tax credits. I am going to appeal and hopefully I might get something but not getting my hopes up.

gratefulforhelp_2

Soubrette wrote: »

I have a friend who's ex decided to become the house husband to his new wife's two children (not his) and there was nothing my friend could do as he has no income at assess. Rightly so it is not the NRPP responsibility to look after someone else's child but it seems the NRP in this case could duck his responsibilities to his own three children by looking after someone else's child :mad:
The only slight comfort is that in the long run he has made himself pretty much unemployable like any other person who takes 20 years out of the job market so to avoid CSA he's lost a lot more money over all (he is educated to a PhD or Masters in I believe engineering).

This is not to mention the total waste of taxpayer money in training him to this level (fees and grants) when he then hasn't fully used the training.

shell_542

JulietAmber wrote: »

If they are receiving child tax credits for these 2 children then even if he isn't working, the CSA will take this as his income. For 2 children, I think that's about £110 a week (could be wrong). So you should be receiving a percentage of that.
You need to ask the CSA to check because some NRPs don't admit that they are receiving this.

It will depend entirely on how much the NRPP earns. Could be much more, could be a lot less, even nothing.