CSA refund?

BARGAINHUNTER!

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BARGAINHUNTER!

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BARGAINHUNTER!

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clearingout

there are a few issues here.

1) I struggle to understand how the CSA have assessed his income if he hasn't provided his details. Once they are contacted by one side, they contact the other. If the 'other' is the one who has to hand over money, they make an assessment based on payslips if employed or accounts if self-employed. As such, your partner cannot have been assessed as having to pay £300 a month. Am I missing something? Perhaps the ex is trying it on? Is your partner not being entirely honest with you?

2) If he is receiving letters, he needs to answer them. Putting your head in the sand won't make it go away! He is building up arrears if he is ignoring letters - if they don't have his actual income, they may put in a default assessment for the time being which will build up. He needs to talk to them, fast, so things don't get out of control for him.

3) If your partner is unable to pay at the same time every month (I can understand why that might be so if self-employed), I can imagine this is frustrating for his ex (who has bills to pay, after all). In her position, I too would be saying I shouldn't have to ask for money - if he is making her do this (by paying on a different day every month so she's forced to ask 'when are you going to pay'), I can appreciate why she's gone to the CSA. It is short-sighted, however, if she is going to receive far less money - she perhaps doesn't realise that. Yet.

4) The CSA will not offer a refund for a time spent over-paying as part of a private arrangement (which it seems they currently have). They will refund, however, if they make a mistake (or this is how I understand it).

4) It sounds like the ex doesn't believe that your partner can't pay which is perhaps another reason why she's gone to the CSA. She is going to be very sorry, I expect!

Hope that helps.

missbunbury

clearingout wrote: »

there are a few issues here.

1) I struggle to understand how the CSA have assessed his income if he hasn't provided his details. Once they are contacted by one side, they contact the other. If the 'other' is the one who has to hand over money, they make an assessment based on payslips if employed or accounts if self-employed. As such, your partner cannot have been assessed as having to pay £300 a month. Am I missing something? Perhaps the ex is trying it on? Is your partner not being entirely honest with you?

2) If he is receiving letters, he needs to answer them. Putting your head in the sand won't make it go away! He is building up arrears if he is ignoring letters - if they don't have his actual income, they may put in a default assessment for the time being which will build up. He needs to talk to them, fast, so things don't get out of control for him.

If he is self-employed and failed to provide income figures, and hasn't done a tax return for the previous 2 financial years then they will have asked his ex what he does for a living and done an assessment based on the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. He is now building up arrears every week based on this. If the original assessment was done less than a month ago (the date the assessment was done, not the effective date, which will be the date the letter giving the weekly figure was posted on) then he can dispute the calculation and provide the proper figures. If he's left it longer than a month already, he still needs to supply the proper income and the case will be reassessed from the first day in the maintenance week during which he informs them. He will have to pay the arrears in this case, because he had a chance to have an accurate calculation done which he didn't take. He also needs to advise them of any children currently in your household and any regular overnight care of the ex's children in order to have the proper reduction applied.