when will CSA payments stop?

justontime

clearingout wrote: »

justontime - why would you expect to live with someone/remarry but still have your income assessed for tax credits/bursaries/grants/loans/mortgages/benefits as if you were single?

I wouldn't! However I would expect to be assessed on what was coming into the household. The system at present especially CSA1 disadvantages children in the NRP household (for post 16 and uni funding etc) especially as in my case where the children are the children of the NRPP. My first husband had died so there was no one else supporting them. I am not saying that my step children should loose out because of this, I am just pointing out that it was very hard to support my own children and if I had realised how difficult it was going to be for them, I would not put them in that situation.

clearingout

pinkpig08 wrote: »

I think the point about income being assessed is not that an NRPP thinks they should be assessed as if single - my husbands' whole income is assessed when calculating tax credits for us, yet he pays a proportion of that income to his ex who is not assessed on it for her own tax credits, even though it is really 'her' income, effectively reducing eligibility for us and our children but increasing it for her.

but then the existence of additional children reduces the maintenance paid to the mother...so really it's about 6 of one and half a dozen of the other, surely?

Alligg

It doesn't get reduced by a great deal, we were still paying £300 a month even with his other daughter living with us.my wages cover bills and food and my partners wage covers mortgage,car and CSA payments leaving us with very little spare.if we were not living together he would have all that to pay from his one wage which would not cover it all. I have sympathy for any family break up but there is too muchfocus on the pwc and little thought for the nrp and how it effects their life.
My partners ex has a good job so has her new partner they have a nice house 2 cars and go on 3 4* holidays a year,but none of her income is taken in to consideration oh no just screw over the nrp for as much as you can and leave them to pick up the financial and emotional pieces and explain to the child living with you.....'sorry we cannot afford to go on holiday but your sister is going to Florida for Christmas and New Year with your mum and step dad and you are not invited'

PreludeForTimeFeelers

I can't comment on CS1, but on CS2 there is more financial weighting given to the child/children who live with the NRP than the qualifying child/children in the case.

justontime

clearingout wrote: »

but then the existence of additional children reduces the maintenance paid to the mother...so really it's about 6 of one and half a dozen of the other, surely?

No it doesn't, as I have said before my husband is on CSA1 there is no reduction for step children. When we married his CSA assessment increased!

The fact that people here don't understand what I am trying to explain helps to prove my point - I had no idea that my children would be adversely affected until after my husband and I were married. Of course he should pay child support I am not disputing that, and as far as I am concerned he should (and does) pay extras as well.

I am trying to explain how paying CSA affects 'children' in the NRP household and this is just one example. When the 'child' goes to university at 18 they apply for grant/loan funding and the parent and step parent have to provide info about their gross income. An adjustment is made for other child dependants in the household, but even if the children that CSA is paid for spend almost half their time in the NRP household, the need to provide for them is not taken into account and the assessment is based on the joint income before CSA is paid. This means that the calculation assumes that the NRP household has more money available to support the student than is actually the case and the student gets less grant/bursary funding because of that calculation. I've had two daughters at university at the same time and has been a real struggle.

I don't resent my step children, quite the opposite in fact. My life and my children's lives have been enriched because they are part of our family. I am so proud of all of our children and I will always do my best to love and support every one of them.

clearingout

Alligg wrote: »

It doesn't get reduced by a great deal, we were still paying £300 a month even with his other daughter living with us.my wages cover bills and food and my partners wage covers mortgage,car and CSA payments leaving us with very little spare.if we were not living together he would have all that to pay from his one wage which would not cover it all. I have sympathy for any family break up but there is too muchfocus on the pwc and little thought for the nrp and how it effects their life.
My partners ex has a good job so has her new partner they have a nice house 2 cars and go on 3 4* holidays a year,but none of her income is taken in to consideration oh no just screw over the nrp for as much as you can and leave them to pick up the financial and emotional pieces and explain to the child living with you.....'sorry we cannot afford to go on holiday but your sister is going to Florida for Christmas and New Year with your mum and step dad and you are not invited'

so a 'well off' PWC should take responsibility for the upbringing of a child/children he/she had with someone else and expect their partner to help out with that, rather than their ex, the children's father, because he isn't deemed to be quiet as well off?

To put it in some kind of context, I currently earn as much as my ex claims to earn. I receive tax credits etc. so on paper am better off. I work full time. My childcare bill is a little in excess of £200 a week, of which £80 is paid for by tax credits. My ex is assessed to pay £45 a week (he doesn't pay anything but that's another story!). So.....before I feed the children, put clothes on them, give them toys, keep them warm, I am paying £75 a week just to be able to work. My ex's contribution (if he made it) is worth nothing in terms of caring for the children and meeting their most basic of needs. But I am, to all intents and purposes, 'better off'. If I had a partner earning at the same rate as me, tax credits would disappear entirely. I would likely have to rely on a partner to pay a significant portion of my children's basic expenses. My ex wouldn't be expected to contribute anything extra - and I would be technically far, far better off than him. You consider that 'fair' and 'reasonable'?

I'm sorry but I don't buy the 'feel sorry for the children who can't have the holiday' in this kind of scenario. They are children with two sets of parents with two different sets of circumstances. We don't (well, I don't anyway) get annoyed that my next door neighbour's children go on holiday and mine don't because they earn what they earn and they spend it how they choose to spend it and that's the end of it. None of my business. Neither is it my business if my ex has expensive holidays I can't afford or vice versa. That's just life.

shoe*diva79

justontime wrote: »

No it doesn't, as I have said before my husband is on CSA1 there is no reduction for step children. When we married his CSA assessment increased!

The fact that people here don't understand what I am trying to explain helps to prove my point - I had no idea that my children would be adversely affected until after my husband and I were married. Of course he should pay child support I am not disputing that, and as far as I am concerned he should (and does) pay extras as well.

I am trying to explain how paying CSA affects 'children' in the NRP household and this is just one example. When the 'child' goes to university at 18 they apply for grant/loan funding and the parent and step parent have to provide info about their gross income. An adjustment is made for other child dependants in the household, but even if the children that CSA is paid for spend almost half their time in the NRP household, the need to provide for them is not taken into account and the assessment is based on the joint income before CSA is paid. This means that the calculation assumes that the NRP household has more money available to support the student than is actually the case and the student gets less grant/bursary funding because of that calculation. I've had two daughters at university at the same time and has been a real struggle.

I don't resent my step children, quite the opposite in fact. My life and my children's lives have been enriched because they are part of our family. I am so proud of all of our children and I will always do my best to love and support every one of them.

Have skim read the while thread so apologies if I have missed something, does the father of your girls pay CM?

cte1111

Alligg wrote: »

What would I know??????
As the name states child support.....at 18 nearly 19 she is hardly a child, if you read another of my posts I said it wasn't what I meant but that just because he was in the RAF he had to pay but it was easier for his daughters mum to take advantage.

How is claiming the legal amount in child support taking advantage? I guess your partner would have lied about his earnings / gone self employed / otherwise attempted to hide his earnings to avoid paying child support. That's the only possibly conclusion to your assertion that he has to pay because he is in the RAF.

justontime

shoe*diva79 wrote: »

Have skim read the while thread so apologies if I have missed something, does the father of your girls pay CM?

No, as I said earlier in the thread my first husband died of cancer age 38 (three months from diagnosis to death) so there is no one except me to support my children. I have always worked hard to support my family and despite all the difficulties I think I have done a reasonably good job.

shoe*diva79

justontime wrote: »

No, as I said earlier in the thread my first husband died of cancer age 38 (three months from diagnosis to death) so there is no one except me to support my children. I have always worked hard to support my family and despite all the difficulties I think I have done a reasonably good job.

Sorry to read that. did he not have any life insurance, critical illness policies through work? Did you claim widowed parents allowance?

Wth CSA 1 your income is only taken into consideration to assertain if your husband is liable for full mortgage/rent etc or if his new partner/wife is working then the figures are used to see how much she can contribute towards them.

Otherwise, like a lot of PWC have found, the NRP takes out a whacking huge mortgage so that CM is reduced!