Child maintenance and the CSA

HurdyGurdy

My daughter and her ex partner have a dreadful relationship. He will not see my daughter at all - when he has contact with their daughter, he has his friend collect and return the child from my daughter, so that he doesn't have to see my daughter, and won't speak to her at all, only communicating via text message.

When they broke up, he told my daughter that he would pay her 10% of his weekly income as child support. He did this scrupulously each week, right down to the penny.

Then his employers moved onto monthly pay, and he continued to make payments each month. He has since had a promotion at work and moved to another town.

He has paid my daughter today, but it is £70 less than the previous two months. She had assumed that the last two months payments reflected a salary increase from his promotion, and expected maintenance to continue at this amount. Her budget is now thrown completely. She feels that he should at least have warned her that the previous two months were not going to be the norm (he works in hospitality, so could possibly have done overtime for the past two months) or warned her that this month was going to be less than before.

She has never seen any of his payslips, so can only assume that he is paying her 10% of his pay. She doesn't feel that it would help their already shaky relationship if she demanded to see his payslips.

Can someone please let me know if the CSA calculates maintenance based on gross or net salaries? And if it is net, and a paying parent has unusual deductions (say, for example, repayment of underpaid tax), would the CSA reduce the maintenance to take this into account.

My daughter is a bit reluctant to go to the CSA, as her ex got very snippy about it when she broached the subject when they first broke up, and she doesn't want to rock the boat with him.

Kayalana99

Their is a CSA board so you'll probally get moved but anyway, she'll get more money if she goes to the CSA I belive as they make you pay 15% ? I belive.

As for rocking the boat well CSA will sort it all out and she wont need to have contact but it depends if she doesn't want to annoy him for the childs sake...I think they are bringing in new rules now as well where they charge her 4% for using CSA (again to be confirmed)

I don't know if its gross or net pay.

Caroline_a

HurdyGurdy wrote: »

My daughter and her ex partner have a dreadful relationship. He will not see my daughter at all - when he has contact with their daughter, he has his friend collect and return the child from my daughter, so that he doesn't have to see my daughter, and won't speak to her at all, only communicating via text message.

When they broke up, he told my daughter that he would pay her 10% of his weekly income as child support. He did this scrupulously each week, right down to the penny.

Then his employers moved onto monthly pay, and he continued to make payments each month. He has since had a promotion at work and moved to another town.

He has paid my daughter today, but it is £70 less than the previous two months. She had assumed that the last two months payments reflected a salary increase from his promotion, and expected maintenance to continue at this amount. Her budget is now thrown completely. She feels that he should at least have warned her that the previous two months were not going to be the norm (he works in hospitality, so could possibly have done overtime for the past two months) or warned her that this month was going to be less than before.

She has never seen any of his payslips, so can only assume that he is paying her 10% of his pay. She doesn't feel that it would help their already shaky relationship if she demanded to see his payslips.

Can someone please let me know if the CSA calculates maintenance based on gross or net salaries? And if it is net, and a paying parent has unusual deductions (say, for example, repayment of underpaid tax), would the CSA reduce the maintenance to take this into account.

My daughter is a bit reluctant to go to the CSA, as her ex got very snippy about it when she broached the subject when they first broke up, and she doesn't want to rock the boat with him.

It looks like the boat is well and truly rocked already! She needs to move on, leave all the collections to the CSA - after all, what else can he do? She doesn't need to know how much he earns, the CSA will sort that for her. I can't see that she has anything at all to lose by using them, he'll just have to suck it up! Additionally, if he is paying her in cash without a receipt then he will have to prove that he has paid from the time that they are involved.

It sounds as if he's behaving in a very childish fashion by having a friend collect his child - personally, I wouldn't be having this at all. If he wants to see his child he needs to man up and face her in a civilised and polite manner.

She also needs to beware of not falling into the 'if he doesn't pay then he can't see the child' trap. These are two separate issues, he should be seeing the child because a child needs to know both of their parents, but additionally he has to bear part of the cost of having a child. Lack of one does not negate the other!

FBaby

It sounds as if he's behaving in a very childish fashion by having a friend collect his child - personally, I wouldn't be having this at all. If he wants to see his child he needs to man up and face her in a civilised and polite manner.

Unless there have been such dreadful arguments at these times, or worse physical contact that this is the least stressful way for the child to still have contact.

HappyMJ

HurdyGurdy wrote: »

My daughter and her ex partner have a dreadful relationship. He will not see my daughter at all - when he has contact with their daughter, he has his friend collect and return the child from my daughter, so that he doesn't have to see my daughter, and won't speak to her at all, only communicating via text message.

When they broke up, he told my daughter that he would pay her 10% of his weekly income as child support. He did this scrupulously each week, right down to the penny.

Then his employers moved onto monthly pay, and he continued to make payments each month. He has since had a promotion at work and moved to another town.

He has paid my daughter today, but it is £70 less than the previous two months. She had assumed that the last two months payments reflected a salary increase from his promotion, and expected maintenance to continue at this amount. Her budget is now thrown completely. She feels that he should at least have warned her that the previous two months were not going to be the norm (he works in hospitality, so could possibly have done overtime for the past two months) or warned her that this month was going to be less than before.

She has never seen any of his payslips, so can only assume that he is paying her 10% of his pay. She doesn't feel that it would help their already shaky relationship if she demanded to see his payslips.

Can someone please let me know if the CSA calculates maintenance based on gross or net salaries? And if it is net, and a paying parent has unusual deductions (say, for example, repayment of underpaid tax), would the CSA reduce the maintenance to take this into account.

My daughter is a bit reluctant to go to the CSA, as her ex got very snippy about it when she broached the subject when they first broke up, and she doesn't want to rock the boat with him.

If he's moved to another town then he may have been out of work for a week between the two jobs and was not paid anything.

I'd see what comes next month before going straight to CSA.

Yes...he should have warned her...but it doesn't sound like there is much communication anyway.

double_mummy

its done on net pay and if he has no other children living with him it is 15% then plus deductions if he has her for more than 52 nights a year

tell your daughter to ring the csa today he can give her whatever he wants as he has shown he cant stick to a private agreement

you dont say how long they have been using this agreement if less than a year i would be worried

even including the csa charge of 4% she will be getting more money than she currently is

stir_crazy

HurdyGurdy wrote: »

My daughter and her ex partner have a dreadful relationship. He will not see my daughter at all - when he has contact with their daughter, he has his friend collect and return the child from my daughter, so that he doesn't have to see my daughter, and won't speak to her at all, only communicating via text message.

When they broke up, he told my daughter that he would pay her 10% of his weekly income as child support. He did this scrupulously each week, right down to the penny.

Then his employers moved onto monthly pay, and he continued to make payments each month. He has since had a promotion at work and moved to another town.

He has paid my daughter today, but it is £70 less than the previous two months. She had assumed that the last two months payments reflected a salary increase from his promotion, and expected maintenance to continue at this amount. Her budget is now thrown completely. She feels that he should at least have warned her that the previous two months were not going to be the norm (he works in hospitality, so could possibly have done overtime for the past two months) or warned her that this month was going to be less than before.

She has never seen any of his payslips, so can only assume that he is paying her 10% of his pay. She doesn't feel that it would help their already shaky relationship if she demanded to see his payslips.

Can someone please let me know if the CSA calculates maintenance based on gross or net salaries? And if it is net, and a paying parent has unusual deductions (say, for example, repayment of underpaid tax), would the CSA reduce the maintenance to take this into account.

My daughter is a bit reluctant to go to the CSA, as her ex got very snippy about it when she broached the subject when they first broke up, and she doesn't want to rock the boat with him.

From this gov leaflet:
"We work out child maintenance by applying one of 4 rates to thenon-resident parent’s ‘net weekly income’. Income is earnings,money from an occupational or personal pension, certainbenefits and in certain circumstances tax credits. Net weeklyincome is the amount of income you are left with after payingthings like income tax, National Insurance and contributions to a pension scheme. If the pension scheme is set up to repay amortgage, only 75% of the money paid into the scheme can betaken away from your gross (total) income. So your net weeklyincome includes 25% of any mortgage-linked pensioncontribution."

There are certain deductions that the CSA will take into account, but from a quick scan of the link, it looks to be dependant on whether the repayments are to do with anything which benefits the family.

Guest101

If he pays 10% to the penny, then you presume that the money was accurate, just less than she expected.

Contacting the CSA can cause problems, and I would suggest avoiding this.

Having an amicable (or tolerable) relationship with flexibility with visitation etc, is better than having court ordered dates etc.

Woolwich_Kim

Is your daughter claiming any benefits for her daughter?

I always thought the CSA only got involved automatically if benefits are being claimed.

My last partner had to pay maintenance through CSA as his child's mother was claiming every benefit under the sun. Think he paid 20% as it was only one child.

When filling out forms that he had to renew each year, they do take into consideration things like rent and the cost of living but only so much i.e if he paid £750 in rent they would only consider £500 as they believe any higher rent than that is a choice for luxury, they don't take into account non essential things like paying off student debts. Employers also get contacted to confirm salary and they must oblige otherwise they could get in trouble.

He hated dealing with the CSA, I don't think any likes dealing with them really.

However, if you can settle this outside of CSA then that's what I'd advise. As you say, you don't want to rock the boat any more than it is for the sake of your grandchild.

I've known some men go to drastic action to avoid the CSA that includes immigrating and cutting all ties with the child. If that happens, it is ultimately the child who suffers.

FatVonD

Caroline_a wrote: »

It sounds as if he's behaving in a very childish fashion by having a friend collect his child - personally, I wouldn't be having this at all. If he wants to see his child he needs to man up and face her in a civilised and polite manner.

I disagree, the OP's opening line stated that they have a 'dreadful relationship' so avoiding contact is the mature and right thing to do.

He should be commended for finding a way to maintain contact with their child in what appear to be difficult circumstances.

shoe*diva79

Woolwich_Kim wrote: »

Is your daughter claiming any benefits for her daughter?

I always thought the CSA only got involved automatically if benefits are being claimed.

My last partner had to pay maintenance through CSA as his child's mother was claiming every benefit under the sun. Think he paid 20% as it was only one child.

When filling out forms that he had to renew each year, they do take into consideration things like rent and the cost of living but only so much i.e if he paid £750 in rent they would only consider £500 as they believe any higher rent than that is a choice for luxury, they don't take into account non essential things like paying off student debts. Employers also get contacted to confirm salary and they must oblige otherwise they could get in trouble.

He hated dealing with the CSA, I don't think any likes dealing with them really.

However, if you can settle this outside of CSA then that's what I'd advise. As you say, you don't want to rock the boat any more than it is for the sake of your grandchild.

I've known some men go to drastic action to avoid the CSA that includes immigrating and cutting all ties with the child. If that happens, it is ultimately the child who suffers.

Your experience is very much outdated. It sounds like your partner was on CSA1 which stopped taking new claims in 2003.

Also, since April 2010, CM has been disregarded for benefit calculations.

The correct % are 15% for 1 child, 20% for 2 children and 25% for 3 children. If a new case comes with 4 children or more then the new 2012 scheme is used which works payments out on gross pay. No outgoings are taken into consideration.

There is currently no charge to use the CSA.