CSA payments question

greenstreetprince

Hi folks,

I have a child from my ex towards whom I contribute around £104 per month.

my current wife is expecting in september. will the fact that I will now have a 2nd child have a bearing on the amount I should pay towards my 1st child? will the figure reduce?

my wages are still as much as they were when the figure of £104 was decided.

grass_is_greener

Yes it will. I cannot remember by exactly how much though.

Use the calculator to work out the correct amount. http://www.csacalculator.dsdni.gov.uk/calc.asp

HappyMJ

It can drop by a couple of pounds per month.

Use the CSA calculator for CSA 2. http://www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator/calculator.asp

kingfisherblue

Assuming you are on CSA2 (case opened since March 2003), you are currently paying 15% of your net income for one child. Once your new baby is born, inform the CSA as soon as possible. The payments should be adjusted. You will have the first 15% disregarded and pay 15% of the remaining amount.

This is assuming there are no arrears and that you don't have your first child overnight on a regualr basis.

clearingout

greenstreetprince wrote: »

my wages are still as much as they were when the figure of £104 was decided.

have you had a pay rise since this figure was decided?

kingfisherblue

If you have your son between 52 and 104 nights a year, the amount you pay should be reduced by one seventh.

So now, you take your net income. Reduce it by 15% - this is the amount disregarded when you have one child in the household (I assume that your wife doesn't have any other children that live with you both). Now take 15% of that figure.

From this amount, reduce it by one seventh because you have your son overnight once a week.

This should leave the amount you pay.

If your wife does have other children that live in your household, the disregarded amount is 20% for two children and 25% for three or more children.

I believe that tax credits are taken into account as income, though, so this could skew the firgures a bit.

greenstreetprince

thanks for the link to the calculator guys, answers everything i needed to know. Also reveals why my ex is so against a 2 nights per week stay!

@clearingout: very insignificant, amounts to about £20 per month

@kingfisherblue: I have my 1st child atleast 1 night a week, this was the case when the original calc was made and remains the case till now

greenstreetprince

kingfisherblue wrote: »

I believe that tax credits are taken into account as income, though, so this could skew the firgures a bit.

hmmmm, interesting point about the tax credits, but if we claim the tax credits on my OH's behalf then that doesnt count as income for me, or does it?

kingfisherblue

greenstreetprince wrote: »

hmmmm, interesting point about the tax credits, but if we claim the tax credits on my OH's behalf then that doesnt count as income for me, or does it?

I'm not sure, TBH. Someone on the Child Support board could probably answer. I'm not sure if it is child tax credits, working tax credits, or both.

lilymay1

greenstreetprince wrote: »

hmmmm, interesting point about the tax credits, but if we claim the tax credits on my OH's behalf then that doesnt count as income for me, or does it?

You can't claim TC as a single person if you are a couple. The TC may be paid to your wife, but it is still a joint claim.

Personally, I think its very very wrong that TC are used as income when working out maintenance payments for children who live elsewhere but that's a whole separate issue and not related to your question in anyway.

greenstreetprince

lilymay1 wrote: »

You can't claim TC as a single person if you are a couple. The TC may be paid to your wife, but it is still a joint claim.

Personally, I think its very very wrong that TC are used as income when working out maintenance payments for children who live elsewhere but that's a whole separate issue and not related to your question in anyway.

Thanx, there is alot of stuff which is very very wrong about the way maintenance payments are worked out or even handled!