CSA assessments and voluntary agreements

Springfield1974

Please help!
The very abridged version of my position is that owing to a foolsh one night stand, I am expecting to become a father very soon. This has unsurprisingly led to the collapse of my marriage, whereby I have a son with my wife. I need some advice on the basis that i am expecting to be proven via DNA, to be the father of this new child.

Whilst tying to put the morality, emotion and stress of all this to one side momentarily, I am trying to understand my financial liability so that I can be fair to all.

My net pay is £2500. I have arranged with my wife to pay voluntarily £300 per month for my son, who I will have 2 to 3 nights per week. On top of this, I will gladly help with child care costs to the tune of £250 per month. (my wife also works full time and earns more than me) whilst giving my wife 60% of the considerable equity in our home. That is our joint decison and i Have no issue with this.

My concern is, that should I become liable for CM for the new child, my understanding is that the CSA will simply require me to pay 15% of my net, £2500, and not take into account the other financial commitments I have arranged outside the CSA for my first child.

Can someone please advise if this is the case?

Thanks.

emsywoo123

Other, more experienced folk will be along soon, but I *believe* they disregard the first 20%, then take 15% of this.

I.e £2500 x 20% = £500
15% of the remaining £2000 = £300 liability.

Hope this makes sense?

Springfield1974

Thank you.

cte1111

emsywoo123 wrote: »

Other, more experienced folk will be along soon, but I *believe* they disregard the first 20%, then take 15% of this.

I.e £2500 x 20% = £500
15% of the remaining £2000 = £300 liability.

Hope this makes sense?

I think that only applies if you have a child that lives with you. You will be the non-resident parent for both children. If the mother of your second child goes to the CSA for child support, then the best bet might be for both mothers to go through the CSA.

The CSA would then take 20% of your net pay and split it between the 2 children. There would be nothing to stop you paying extra maintenance to your wife, on top of the money she would get from the CSA.

Springfield1974

Thank you. From what I read on the CSA website, it did seem that financially I would be better off if both mothers went through the CSA, but I had hoped to avoid this for my son. Something for me to consider though, should the CSA ignore all voluntary arrangements in place.

HoneyNutLoop

The CSA will ignore any voluntary arrangement, as under the current (2003) scheme there is no law in place that allows them to do otherwise.

If you had a court order in place for you son, for the first year after the order is granted, they can consider him as a non-resident relevant child, which gives him the same standing as a qualifying child in the calculation.

Otherwise your only other choices are pay 15% of your net income for child 2 if you are adamant you don't want the CSA involved with the maintenance for your son, or make an application for the CSA to calculate the maintenance for your son too, with each child then getting 10% of your net income. Your son's maintenance calculation would then be reduced to take account of the overnight care arrangements. Additionally if both you and your wife agree to it, that case can be set up as "calculation only" which the CSA call "maintenance direct".