reassement and arrears problems

andy_H_4

I am being re-assesed, on the old system and it seems payments are going from £100 a month to £400. Plus i have arrears of £3000.
I see my children every fortnight friday to sunday plus occasional holidays as agreed with ex.

My son (16) starts work as an apprentice in september, daughter is 13.

out of my average £1300 a month earnings (employed as an agency driver) i pay

£420 mortgage
£165 DMP
£75 council tax
£10 service charge (ex-housing assosiation property)
£100 present CSA

£770 total

But i have to pay

£100 petrol
£60 gas and electric (DD)
£120 food
£15 car tax
£40 tv/phone/broadband/tv license

Which leaves me with £200 a month

My questions are how long do i have to pay arrears? until kids have left education?

And can i have my CSA payments reduced?

as on the new system it seems i would pay £200

Any advice please?

kelloggs36

Hi, you should be able to negotiate the amount of arrears you pay on a monthly basis, but you will have to pay them all off regardless of whether the children are at school, so if you pay them off at a minimum amount per month then it could be that you are still paying after another 10 years!!!! The only way to get the CSA payments reduced is to have a change in circumstances - increased housing costs, reduced income etc or have your children for an average of 2 nights per week, which will enable you to qualify for the Shared Care reduction.

kelloggs36

Is your ex in receipt of benefits or WFTC or neither?

kelloggs36

Unfortunately there is no provision to allow for costs as you have described except for housing costs and travel to work, provided that the mileage is in excess of 150 miles per week, in which case you need to apply for a variation on the grounds of high travel to work costs.

andy_H_4

kelloggs36 wrote: »

Is your ex in receipt of benefits or WFTC or neither?

I dont think so, as she is in full time employement but her partner is on incapacity benefit.

kelloggs36

Her income will have been taken into account in the assessment unless she gets WFTC which is possible. If she has an assessable income, it could reduce the amount payable, but it is already built into the assessment but I was going to try and check your assessment. Did you say that your ASSESSMENT has increased to 400 quid per month, or is it 100 plus 300 for arrears?

kelloggs36

What type of mortgage do you have? Is it a repayment one? If so, can you tell me how much is outstanding and what the interest rate is? Also, do you pay your council tax over 10 months or over a year? is it 750 per year, or more?

andy_H_4

no it is going to go from £100 + £25 arrears to £400 + arrears, CT is £750 a year paid 10 months, repayment mortgage of 56,000 5.6% fixed 2 years

kelloggs36

Based on the figures you have given me, I have calculated that the assessment would be 390.00 per month - I have used a net income of 300 per week (1300 X 12 / 52) so this may not be totally accurate. The assessment looks right in this case. You are being asked to pay 30% of your net income as maintenance which is the maximum, as your actual assessment should be 107.20 but there is a cap at 30% of your income, plus arrears. Do you pay into a pension scheme? If so, then check that they have allowed 50% of the amount paid to take off your income. If you don't have a pension scheme - you do need one anyway, and they allow 50% of these against your income, but under the new rules, you would get the full 100%.

andy_H_4

No i don't at present pay into a pension scheme.

Also what happens if i do not have enough money to pay CSA , due to my wages being dependant on work?

Some months I can earn upto £500 a week (if i work the whole weekend) but during the months of january to march I probably earn less than £200. But in this year to date my average is £300.

kelloggs36

They will expect you to budget when you earn more money put it by so that when you earn less, you can afford to pay. If you have a long period of time where you aren't getting overtime, then they can reassess you. They will more than likely use year to date figures if your income fluctuates a lot.