What are the chances of the csa agreeing to this???

sjohnson87

Hi everyone
Im after some advice really, hope ive come to the right place?- Bit of background quickly!
I am asking on behalf of my finace, basically he is paying for his daughter which he had from his first marriage, he currently £50 per week, because he was in a lot of arrears due to never ending redudancy, switching jobs, ill health etc.
They take the payment each week through a D.O.E, this has been the case for about a year now.
We have been together 7 years and have three children and a new baby due in may and at the moment are struggling finacially, due to myself having a bad pregnancy, therefore oh has had to take unpaid time off work to look after our children.
Basically what i wanted to know is how would we go about appealing to get the payments each week reduced?? As £50 per week is crippling us, oh works 4 on 4 off, and 2 extra days a week, therefore the way his pay structure works he never gets a set amount each week( he's a hgv driver, so gets bonus's etc)

sorry for the long post, could anybody shed some light about how we can go about it? Thanks

fannyanna

Is he on CSA1 or CSA2?

Also is the £50 per week the child maintenance liability or the child maintenance liability plus arrears?

PreludeForTimeFeelers

sjohnson87 wrote: »

Hi everyone
Im after some advice really, hope ive come to the right place?- Bit of background quickly!
I am asking on behalf of my finace, basically he is paying for his daughter which he had from his first marriage, he currently £50 per week, because he was in a lot of arrears due to never ending redudancy, switching jobs, ill health etc.
They take the payment each week through a D.O.E, this has been the case for about a year now.
We have been together 7 years and have three children and a new baby due in may and at the moment are struggling finacially, due to myself having a bad pregnancy, therefore oh has had to take unpaid time off work to look after our children.
Basically what i wanted to know is how would we go about appealing to get the payments each week reduced?? As £50 per week is crippling us, oh works 4 on 4 off, and 2 extra days a week, therefore the way his pay structure works he never gets a set amount each week( he's a hgv driver, so gets bonus's etc)

sorry for the long post, could anybody shed some light about how we can go about it? Thanks

Do you know if the case is on CS1 (old rules, cases from pre-2003) or CS2 (new rules, cases after 2003)?

How much of the £50 per week is regular maintenance, and how much is arrears, and roughly how much arrears are still left to pay?

It's certainly worth calling them, and see if you can renegotiate the arrears payments at a lower rate. The CSA aim to have all arrears paid out within 2 years, and will generally set payments at 40%, however the case officers can sometimes get this set at a lower rate - to do this they need to go to their team leader with a reasonable argument to do so. The fact that you have a new child about to be born would possibly be taken into consideration.

kelloggs36

If the assessment is correct, then they cannot change it and therefore will not. The only chance you have is if the amount paid includes arrears.

bdt1

If you are on CS1 you could put in a 'change of circumstances' to the CSA, put this in writing, recorded delivery etc etc, but you could also call them and tell them letter in post! That way they cannot deny you informed them of a change in circumstances.!!!

If you are on CS1 a certain element of the assessment will look at Child Tax Credits/ Work Tax Credits and may have an impact on the assessment depending on who usually is the largest wage earner in your household. If your husband is usually main wage earner then CTC/WTC you receive may be included in the assessment as income, if you are usually the main wage earner (but not at present) then this is not the case. BUt obvioulsy this may be detrimental to your current situation, so consider this carefully

Alternatively if you hubs is not earning as much at present as he usually does, then put in a change of circs and request a re-assessment based on fact that his income has gone down, he will have to supply wage slips etc as evidence before a re-assessment can be performed, i would also suggest that when your baby is born, you again, inform CSA as this will again change the assessment as an allowance for the additonal child in your household will be relevant on CSA1.

The sooner you inform CSA that your hubs income has gone down then the sooner they may look at reassessing, if you get nowhere with them the try your MP, but they in general are very slow so although you may get reassessed at some point, don't hold your breath it will be anytime soon!!!

GOOD LUCK