Child benefit no longer payable but CSA still being paid

13Kent

We know that Child Benefit is no longer being payable for my husband's child who is now 18. The 'child' has been working on some sort of apprenticeship for more than 12 months, and was being paid a wage but has never attended college as far as we know as part of the course. The 'child' also moved out of the mother's home quite a while ago, so we suspect that CB has been claimed by the mother for all this time when it shouldn't have been.

Anyway, even though we know that the Child Benefit payments ceased a few months ago the CSA are still claiming the full payments. Does anyone have any experience of this? Will the system 'catch up' (I believe we pay a month in arrears so we were expecting to pay for one extra month) and if so will we get a refund of any overpayments or will we have to start hassling the CSA to get the child removed from the calculation? We are on CSA1.

Thanks!

DUTR

Don't you have to wait until the case is closed?
my bro was paying by DEO and the payments continued, then he contacted them as he like you knew the circumstances had changed, the case was closed and 2 months payment refunded promptly.

sfm82

Have you informed the csa of the change in circumstances?

13Kent

There is a second child, so the case won't be closed yet. We don't know whether we need to inform the csa or whether the CB people would have already done that. We are reluctant to contact CSA because if past experience is anything to go by it opens the flood gates for loads of paperwork, incorrect assessments and lots of phone calls/letters back and forth to try and get a correct assessment. - Last time we ended up with a load of arrears as the PWC lied and told the CSA that hubby wasn't paying anything to her (he was stupidly paying cash at her request) and although he could prove that the money was coming out of his bank he couldn't prove it had been paid to her, and the CSA took her word for it and he ended up with thousands of pounds worth of arrears for money he had already paid. So we are reluctant to contact CSA if we don't have to!!

PreludeForTimeFeelers

13Kent wrote: »

There is a second child, so the case won't be closed yet. We don't know whether we need to inform the csa or whether the CB people would have already done that. We are reluctant to contact CSA because if past experience is anything to go by it opens the flood gates for loads of paperwork, incorrect assessments and lots of phone calls/letters back and forth to try and get a correct assessment. - Last time we ended up with a load of arrears as the PWC lied and told the CSA that hubby wasn't paying anything to her (he was stupidly paying cash at her request) and although he could prove that the money was coming out of his bank he couldn't prove it had been paid to her, and the CSA took her word for it and he ended up with thousands of pounds worth of arrears for money he had already paid. So we are reluctant to contact CSA if we don't have to!!

Child Benefit don't contact the CSA - CSA don't contact Child Benefit either, unless they have cause to. Without the NRP or PWC asking the CSA to check if CHB is still in payment then they won't look into it. If you want that 'child' excluded from the case then you will have to contact the CSA and ask them to look into it.

desthemoaner

There's no automatic facility for the Child Benefit people to inform the CSA than CB has ended.

Ring the CSA and explain the circumstances. They will obtain what's called a "chib print" and if child benefit is no longer in payment, they'll end liability for that child from the day before CB ended. Any consequent overpayment will be adjusted against arrears or future liability, if appropriate.

In my experience, the CSA are one of the better government departments when it comes to doing what they say they will do. Which doesn't say much about the others.

13Kent

Thank you for your replies. We will have to "bite the bullet" and ring them then!

jarhead66

Best of luck and don't ever believe a word that the C.S.A. tell you

13Kent

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

desthemoaner

jarhead66 wrote: »

Best of luck and don't ever believe a word that the C.S.A. tell you

With respect, that's not good advice. If they tell you that you need to provide evidence to back up a claim of a change of circumstances, you need to believe it. Otherwise it could cost you a lot of money.

The CSA website has some good advice on it, believe it or not. Its a good place to start for those setting out on the journey and wanting to know what they can, and can't claim for to mitigate their liability.