How do we go about obtaining re-payment of overpaid child support

139tracy

My Partner pays his ex-wife an agreed amount of maintenance each week. Although the amount is calulated via the CSA caluculator the agreement is not monitored by them. Last year he was off work for 9 months following a bad car accident. He was claiming sick pay at a rate of £83 per week and even during that time he still paid his ex wife the full maintenace amount.

He called the CSA to ask what would happen generally in these circumstances and he was advised that he should reduce his payment from £43 per week to £5 per week. However during that time he had already overpaid her by approx £1,000. He now feels that he should be able to claim this back from her. Can he do this ? and how would he do it ?

She also works full time, claims the child benefit and working tax credits. However he has his son 4 days a week as they have joint custody and he does'nt cliam a penny, surely this is not fair ?

zzzLazyDaisy

139tracy wrote: »

She also works full time, claims the child benefit and working tax credits. However he has his son 4 days a week as they have joint custody and he does'nt cliam a penny, surely this is not fair ?

How can it not be fair, he pays what they agreed, and according to your OP this was calculated by reference to CSA formula. He can't claim anything from the state because only one parent can have child benefit, and it is that parent who claims tax credits.

If your partner isn't happy with the amount he is paying, he is free to ask his ex to consider accepting a smaller amount, or to ask her to make a claim through the CSA instead and let them carry out an independent assessment.

As for the 'over-payment'. There is nothing he can do about it. It wasn't an overpayment, he was simply continuing to support his child according to the voluntary agreement that he's reached with his ex. He has no legal right to reclaim the money, that's the nature of voluntary agreements. Even if the CSA take over immediately they can't backdate any assessment.

fannyanna

Is there actually a CSA case open or is this a private arrangement based on CSA calculations.

If a case is open - I'm not sure there's really anything that can be done now. He would have needed to inform the CSA when his income went down to SSP. They can't backdate anything.

If it's a private arrangement - try to speak to the ex and see if she's happy for the maintenance to be varied for x period of time to claw back the overpayment. Even if she doesn't like the idea you could just vary the payment - although this will more than likely put a strain on relations and result in her opening a CSA case (where they will nto care about any previous overpayments).

zzzLazyDaisy

I understood this to be an informal voluntary agreement, since OP says the amount is calculated in accordance with the formula on the CSA website, but is not monitored by the CSA.

fannyanna

Well if it is a private arrangement and payments are not dictated and enforced by the CSA you could do the following.

(1) If relations with the PWC are good and she accepts that he's overpaid and is willing to allow him to claw back the payments you could halve the weekly payments allowing the overpayment to be paid back in approximately 63 weeks (or at some other agreed rate).

(2) If the PWC doesn't agree to reduced payments and your partner still wants the overpayments back then he could just stop making maintenance payments. It would take about 31 weeks until the money is in effect clawed back. Howver, I'm sure it wont take the PWC that long to open a CSA case so you might not actually get all the money back.

I guess it all hinges on the relationship with the PWC.

fannyanna

fannyanna wrote: »

Well if it is a private arrangement and payments are not dictated and enforced by the CSA you could do the following.

(1) If relations with the PWC are good and she accepts that he's overpaid and is willing to allow him to claw back the payments you could halve the weekly payments allowing the overpayment to be paid back in approximately 63 weeks (or at some other agreed rate).

(2) If the PWC doesn't agree to reduced payments and your partner still wants the overpayments back then he could just stop making maintenance payments. It would take about 31 weeks until the money is in effect clawed back. Howver, I'm sure it wont take the PWC that long to open a CSA case so you might not actually get all the money back.

I guess it all hinges on the relationship with the PWC.

P.S. I've not factored what's morally right or wrong into this.

139tracy

Thank you both for your comments you have been really helpful.

They do have an 'informal' agreement over maintenance which is not monitored via the CSA. The ex-wife does not actully have 'residency' they both have equal 'custody' over the child. It just so happens she claims everything! They have a strained relationship and my partner is often told that if he does not comply with her rules, she will stop him seeing the child, but that is another issue.

zzzLazyDaisy

In law the child's mother is the parent with care, since she is the person who gets the child benefit. It may sound unfair, but that is how this is decided for benefits purposes.

Marisco

I'd leave well alone! TBH £172pm is not all that much CM, when you see what some have to pay!!:eek: If relations are already strained, then asking to pay less or nothing is not going to help. I presume your oh is back in work, and things are back to "normal"? Put it down to experience, and the knowledge that you will know better next time;)

fannyanna

Marisco wrote: »

TBH £172pm is not all that much CM, when you see what some have to pay!!

I hope this doesn't come across as rude as I really don't mean it to and my comments are not solely in relation to this comment (but other similar comments I've seen on this board at times)

I always find it a bit annoying when people scoff at actual amounts of child maintenance being paid and state that it's not much.

£100 to one NRP may not be much money but £100 to another will. It all depends on what percentage that £100 equates to.

For example in this case I'm sure the £43 per week equates to 15% of the NRP's net salary. If 15% of another NRP's salary was £80 per week you wouldn't be able to say at least yours is less. It's still 15% of the NRP's net salary however much is actually being paid.

Strapped

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

In law the child's mother is the parent with care, since she is the person who gets the child benefit. It may sound unfair, but that is how this is decided for benefits purposes.

Personally, I would leave well alone, especially if there is a working or even amicable relationship with the PWC.

BUT - leaving aside all questions of what is "morally" right - either parent can apply for child benefit. In cases of shared residency, it is usually awarded to whichever party has the child most nights per week (but there can be exceptions to this if you can prove that you are actually the main carer despite having only say 3 nights per week). So the OP's partner could apply for child benefit (and would probably get it if he has child 4 nights per week).

They could then also apply for tax credits and make their own CSA claim :whistle: