csa or not

lilyjay76

i will try to keep this short but it may be difficult.i have to boys aged 11 and 12 to my ex partner.both live with me but sleep at his 10 nights a month . he pays me £40 a week (£20 per child).we split when our youngest was 9 mnths old and he used to pay £30 a week,but it as increased to 40 over last 11 yrs. he has school uniforms at his house. i pay £30 a week for school dinners,all thier clothes,shoes,clubs,school trips etc.we have always got on in the past,i even went to his wedding !!! however i recently asked him to consider an increase in maintainance and was swiftly shot down apparently he can't afford more.he and his wife live in a four bed detached house they have no children ,both drive convertables and have an hectic social life.i have no probs with this ,they both work so why not ? i'm just fed up at saying no to the kids all the time.he runs his own small business and employs 4 people full time.he as been done by the taxman on 3 occasions and i've heard rumours he as told tax pays me £100 pw,he was laughing to the kids the other day about how he can't wait till they turn 16.both want to go to college after school but i'm worried he will disuade them. should i contact csa or will his ability to cook the books ( most of his business is paid cash in hand ) mean i will be worse off .sorry it was so long winded thanks

DUTR

The csa assesment will be based upon legitmate income, if he is self employed you may well end up with less than you get now.
Lifestyle? Credit can make folk seem to have the lavish lifestyle that far exceeds their income, also some folks are very poor at handling managing money and so their pounds are not working best for them. Holidays do not need to cost a great deal, energy costs is something people often ignore, eg having pre payment metering instead of a dual fuel tariff, or paying extra on bills for non DD or paper bills, soon adds up quickly. Yes probably it is better to have a csa case open, but better for whom?
In my case I was better off paying csa by between £60-90 per week.
A colleague went to the CSA and the £20 or £30 per week has dropped to an irregular less than £10 per week.
But the choice ultimately is yours.

laineybird2000

I don't know much about if tbh... But there's a calculator online to give you an idea of what he should be paying, that's if you know how much he's earning... If you think he's going to be creative in his accounting, I think there's an adjustment process, something to do with lifestyle not consistent with earnings? Worth a look.

Good luck

FBaby

can't you ask him to pay more towards certain items instead of asking for more cash. If he is in control of where the money goes he might be more wiling to pay more.