CSA - Is it worth appealing an assesment?

frogboy2007

hi all

I have been given my child maintenance assesment, i think its slightly higher than it should be, is it worth sending the appeal form back in? I mean, in anyones experience have they known an appeal to help reduce payments?

I was paying an amount for 5 years, suddenly out of the blue the CSA rang me in october to say they were going to review my case and wanted wage slips from myslef and my new partner (now my wife). I sent these in... a month or so later they ring and say they are closing my case?!?! when i asked why they said its because my ex wouldnt send her wage slips in to them and didnt respond to letters... now she has appealed that they have revised the case and re-opened it and have given me a new higher fee...

the reason for my appeal is that since they stopped it last novemebr and closed the case we have had to send our daughter to nursery (my daughter with my wife, nothing to do with my ex) 3 days a week and now have to pay £324 per month in nurersy fee's. The CSA say they dont take this into account when doing their calculations, regardless of the fact its something we have no choice but to pay and its also nearly half of my wifes income..

ive put that in the appeal and was just wondering before i send it off, do appeals make things worse or do the CSA look at things like this and take them into account if appealed against?

aussiesbird

Go ahead with your appeal - what have you got to lose?!
The CSA are a law unto themselves and I believe they just pick a figure double it and thats what you pay!! My partner is a NRP and is having nothing but problems with the CSA. They won't take is ex-wifes income into account, she has re-married has a part time job her hubbie has his own business and they own their own house. Whereas my partner and i live in rented accomodation, he works full time for NHS I am on incapacity benefit for illness and he took on approx £20000 of debt from his marriage to her. They have increased his payments by over 50% and are now requesting back pay to June 2005 (we only heard from them on 5th April this year). They are taking non-guaranteed earnings into account such as O/T and unsocial hours. We have got our local MP to look into it now but will also put in an appeal.
You make sure you fight, NRP are not allowed to get on with their lives and try to better themselves without repercussions from the CSA - how unfair is that!
Good Luck!!

MJMum

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kelloggs36

Childcare fees are ignored - full stop so the appeal will fail. You can appeal if they have used the incorrect income figures or incorrect housing costs etc. What has been allowed in the assessment is all that is allowed unless you have the special circumstances for a Departure - but childcare costs aren't covered.

Mr_Green_Genes

It's always worth appealing against anything the numpties have done, unless it's clearly in your favour. They are all so amazingly incompetent that there's bound to be something wrong with their work.

lkillner

Hi Frogboy2007, I've just read your original post. Why did you send you current partners wage slips? They way I understand it, child maintenance is calculated on the NRP wages & any benefits or tax credits you're in receipt of. They cannot include your partners income. If they are, then I'm sure you can appeal against it, and hopefully reduce your payments.

Good Luck

aMeLia'S~MuMMY

lkillner wrote: »

They way I understand it, child maintenance is calculated on the NRP wages & any benefits or tax credits you're in receipt of. They cannot include your partners income. If they are, then I'm sure you can appeal against it, and hopefully reduce your payments.

From what I can gather Frogboy2007 is on old rules and .'. they would ask for partners income details, however I would suggest that the notifications are checked to see if they have all the correct information ~ especially up to date housing costs as it seems that when doing the review new housing costs were not requested but I would imagine in the 5 years he hadn't been reasessed that they could have changed (gone up?) if so you can ask for a change of circumstances.

:A

kelloggs36

There is no need to appeal just to check if the figures are right - he can do that himself by looking at the figures input on the assessment. He can ask for a Face to Face interview to explain any queries. The appeal will only deal with the matter brought to their attention, so if he is appealing against their non allowance of childcare costs, the appeal will fail.

aussiesbird

How do you know if you are on new or old rules ?

kelloggs36

He says that he was paying for 5 years which is before the new system came in. Only cases which were received after March 2003 are under the new rules.