Son is now living with me - advice needed

Mark148

I have been paying CSA (CSA2) for 5 years now for my Son who lived with his mother. Recently my financial circumstances changed and I duly informed the CSA. After they had carried out there calculations I was owed approximately £1000 due to overpayments I had made during the reassessment period. A payment schedule was issued which reflected a reduced monthly payment until the end of 2012 for the recovery of the overpayment.

A month ago my Son voted with his feet and decided to live with us at our new address. I informed the CSA of the change in circumstances and they have informed me to continue with the payment schedule until we are in receipt of CB and they will then close the case against me, refund all monies owed and then open a case against my Ex. I have informed CB and made a claim and also sent a later recorded delivery to CSA summarising our phone conversation.

Advice would be much appreciated as to should I continue to pay as my Son is actually living with us now and that ruling does seem to be 'daft' and also if anybody has any pearls of wisdom from having been in this situation themselves.

I shouldn't really revel in the fact that my Son now lives with me:j:j:j:j:j:j:j but his mother has denied us both contact for over 4 years, made horrendous allegations, abused the Family Court System and completely alienated my Son against me at a young age. As he has matured he has come to realise of his own volition that things were not as his mother had made them out to be.

Thanks for any advice :T:T

PreludeForTimeFeelers

Do you think his mam would admit to the Csa that your boy now lives with you? If so then there'll be no need to wait for child benefit.

RedSky

The CSA appear to use the receipt of Child Benefit for determining a qualifying child and which parent receives maintenance e.g. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2011-09-13a.70697.h .

We shall see how this changes when the new Child Benefit restrictions are in place as a PWC may qualify to receive maintenance but not child benefit.

Mark148

Thanks for comments so far:

PFTF. CSA said they would not open a case until they closed the case against me and they would only open the case when CB was in payment to me. I don't believe that they will contact my ex until case is closed.

RS. The link was interesting especially the part of increasing the age of a qualifying child to 20 years old. I personally believe this to be wrong as a child stops being a child at age 18 and any payments made after this date should be on a voluntary basis.

Most NRP's will continue to support there children beyond the age of 18 but it should not dictated by the State. I myself will expect no CSA payments from my ex once my Son turns 18 and I will close the case even though I know he will be staying on at school/college.

If his mother chooses not to support him after his 18th then that is for her to address with her own conscience. But if she chooses to continue to do so then that money will go direct to our Son.

his_wife

mark, we are in a very similar position to you, my step daughter has moved in with us, yet cb and csa are still being paid to her, and she is still taking them!!

Csa have informed us, that as as long as cb is being paid, we should keep making csa payments, backwards or what!!!! meanwhile, we are keeping the daughter on fresh air, whilst her mother rakes the money in .

The csa system is an absolute farce at times.

nicky3

My son came to live with me and his father continued to claim CB for 8 months, they insisted CB must be in place and when it was, they did nothing about it but racked up arrears against me for a year. The CB award was eventually backdated, but as I had not applied immediately, and they WILL continue to pay it to the original claimant for a period of 3 weeks after a counter claim is made, the CB stayed with his dad for a total of 10 weeks, beyond the date that he had NO CHILD IN HIS CARE!! The CSA insisted I must pay maintenance for these 10 weeks.........even although father had admitted to the CSA that the child was in my care during this period (he said it was for the summer holidays - summer holidays)

I fought with about 8 different complaints handlers at the CSA and each and every one insisted that "legislation dictated" none of them could produce the legislation. I eventually appealed......one letter to appeals and the decision was overturned. I do not believe any such legislation exists....in cases where there is absolute shared care....ie 50/50 time spent then, and only then is CB the definitive requisite.

Be cautious about this......It took me a year to secure my CB, and boy oh boy did I have to fight for it, when all the time, it was never needed. I have no idea what stories my ex concocted to CB, but they stated that they have extremely conflicting stories as to the pattern of care for the child, and this is why they could not decide.....yes my ex was claiming fraudulently....will they do anything about it....I very much doubt it...not enough cash involved. But.....my life was hell for a year.....I had no idea what was going on, the CB would not tell me what the problem was, I was caring for both my children, and was having CSA arrears racked up against me ....... AND, of course, I was completely unable to make a claim for Child Support.....To this day the CSA take no responsibility, they have blamed me stating that I provided evidence so as to win my appeal blah blah, its all rubbish and lies. Even with my successful appeal in place, they did nothing wrong.....a whole gang of them quoting non existent legislation and still they are right!! Completely unbelievable. My case is now with ICE as they persecuted me for a year while I was the PWC.

Thats my story....be cautious....all is not right with the CSA and the higher up the pile you get, the more corrupt and bullying they become

Mark148

HW and N3 many thanks for your advice and pearls of wisdom. My Son has moved to another part of the Country so new School and GP etc should I believe be sufficient evidence of a change in residency if require. I will however draft and send a recorded letter to the CSA explaining why I am stopping payments as of now and as a reminder that they still owe me almost a £1000 in overpayments.

Thanks )

kevin137

Mark148 wrote: »

HW and N3 many thanks for your advice and pearls of wisdom. My Son has moved to another part of the Country so new School and GP etc should I believe be sufficient evidence of a change in residency if require. I will however draft and send a recorded letter to the CSA explaining why I am stopping payments as of now and as a reminder that they still owe me almost a £1000 in overpayments.

Thanks )

Include in that letter that YOU want to open a case as well. Then you have it in writing, and it should be good for use in an appeal or for ICE should the need arise that they don't open a claim for you.

Mark148

Thanks Kevin, will do, amendment now being carried out:beer:

13Kent

Can't add much to your CSA situation I'm afraid, but I just wanted to say how pleased I am that you and your son are reunited and he has seen for himself that you are a good Dad despite the things he was probably told by his mother. Sadly we are still waiting for that day to come......and one of my OH's children dropped out of college before Xmas, but because the PWC continues to recieve CB (despite the child not being in education and or vocational training) we continue to pay CSA. The child meanwhile is doing nothing.