Csa assessment

Scared_dad

Hi all I am new to the forum and apologise in advance if this question has already been asked but I am worried that I'm going to be paying more than I earn.

Me and my now ex spouce (July 13) currently sorting divorce proceedings out. We have 2 children 1 of 13 and the other 6. I have Been refused contact with them from ex spouce and told that the 6 year old I will have to see through a contact centre - for reasons unknown to myself and have been told that my 13 doesn't wish to see me. I don't know if this is allowed or not but I don't want to rock that boat at the moment as it is a messy break up and I believe that ex is using them as a weapon to get to me.

Back to the subject in hand. The csa has contacted me over payments that I feel that there review is completely unfair I have not got an issue in paying for my children even if I don't see them they are mine and that is not doubted. There assessment is based on a single wage slip BEFORE tax and NI contributions. The issue is this the one month wage they asked for happens to show my yearly bonus and 1/2 yearly commission which is what they have based the assessment on and worked out from there. The issue with this is that the payment would be fine if that was my every month income but its not and the payments they are asking for each month is MORE than I earn every other month of the year. I told them this and there response was that this is how it is. My issue is obvious they want me to pay this and when I said its unaffordable they said my account will go into arrears and I will default on my payments that I could end in court. I have heard that no solicitor would be willing to take on the csa because of there authority. I feel like quiting my job and being done with it but I know that £10 per week is not enough to bring up 2 children.

Help and advise needed please

Two4Tuesday

You need to send them payslips regularly over the next few months and ask them to reassess your payments. Eventually your payments should be correct.

laineybird2000

I'm curious why you would only send them one payslip without a covering letter advising them of the actual amount you earn. They can only set up payments on the information you give them, you should provide them with more payslips to get a better understanding of what you earn.

Scared_dad

They only asked for one wage slip and I did explain this to them and even gave them my employers detail for payroll and they said they were of no use as they had all the information they needed I have had 2 conversations with them now to find where my claim is and they said it is in hand as a NRP it is impossible to do anything

CSAworkerx

Your bonus and commission would be classed as irregular and therefore could be deemed "not relevant income" Meaning that particular payslip would be disreguarded and youd be assessed on ure actual income, Rare to happen for a bonus mind you, that will be taken into account, but commission can be wiped if you provide any other payslip showing you have not recived it.

Id ring in and ask for a revision on the basis youll send further payslips in, We have to re-assess if new evidence comes to light.

Blackpool_Saver

disreguarded? may I ask which csa dept. you work in?

CSAworkerx

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

disreguarded? may I ask which csa dept. you work in?

i work on new cases, And can only speak from a new case point of view, when we make initial assessments its not uncomming to disreguard payslips if they are low or high, for exmaple if i see 3 payslips 1 has overtime the other 2 dont, ill disreguard the one with overtime and use the other 2 to assess.

Scared_dad

That seems to make sense and I thought it was strange don't get me wrong I want to pay but I don't want to be bankrupt I understand that the 20% rule is right and I complete agree with that. Anyone know what to do in the mean time about maintenance paYments as she hasn't given me her banking details to by via BT or SO and I was paying cash directly posting it through the letterbox but I know that this cant be proved if she says that I haven't paid.... Would you leave the money to one side that I was paying her so when/if it gets reassessed I don't have to find it all at once or do I do what I was doing and hope that she don't say I haven't paid.... Bearing mind we are not on speaking terms and doesn't answer my calls or emails or reply to my solicitor

HoneyNutLoop

Hi, it sounds like you have been assessed under CSA3 which is a gross income scheme. Instead of paying 20% of your net income you should pay 16% of your gross income. They should source your income from HMRC directly.

What led to them asking you to send in a payslip - were they unable to get any info from HMRC or did you disagree with the info HMRC provided?

This booklet explains how they work out your payments under the newest scheme:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/85746/how-we-work-out-child-maintenance.pdf

It sounds like they would look at your year to date earnings on your payslip and use that to calculate your average weekly gross pay and then see if that's at least 25% different to the info supplied by HMRC. Is that what they did? If not, can you tell us how they used your payslip to calculate your income?

The fact that certain elements of your wage are paid annually or bi-annually doesn't mean they will be excluded under CSA3, like CSAcaseworkerx has described for CSA2, which is the area s/he works. Even under CSA2 irregular payments like annual bonuses shouldn't have been disregarded. The legislation is clear that they should have been averaged over the period which they were paid and then added onto regular income.

So if someone is normally paid £1600 a month and receives a £2000 annual bonus, the £1600 would equate to a normal weekly income of £369.23 + £38.46 for the averaged annual bonus = £407.69 income for calculation purposes.

Because CSA3 is based on your last full year's income, everything you earn is taken into account and averaged to a weekly figure.

The booklet advises the following if you think their decision is wrong:
Q: What happens if I disagree with the Child Maintenance Service’s decision?
A: If you think we have worked out child maintenance incorrectly, or that the amount is no longer correct, you can ask us to look at our decision again.
We’ll look again at how we worked out the amount. If we find that the amount is wrong, we’ll change it. If we cannot change it, we’ll tell you why.
We’ll send you a letter explaining our decision and will try to answer any questions you may have about it. If you think our decision to change your child maintenance, or to leave it unchanged, is wrong you should phone us or write to us and tell us why. The address and phone number will be on the letter we send you.
If we decide your payments should change, this may start from the same date that your child maintenance started. But you must have asked us to look at our decision within 30 days of our first telling you how much your child maintenance is.
If we have looked at our calculation again and you disagree with our reviewed decision, you can then appeal against it. You must do this within one month of getting a letter from us telling you about the reviewed decision.
You can find more information about asking us to look at our decision again or appealing against our decisions in our leaflet What to do if you’re unhappy with the Child Maintenance Service.

Have they sent you a letter telling you they've looked at it again and it's staying the same? If so, the next step in the process is to appeal.

As for payments, how have they told you to pay? Direct to them or to your ex? This booklet explains the different payment options available:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/142634/paying-child-maintenance.pdf

If they have sent you a schedule to pay them and you don't pay they will look to take action to collect it forcibly. If you are working, this is normally by serving a DEO. If you are supposed to pay your ex directly but she hasn't given her bank details I would not pay cash as you can't prove you've paid. I would call the CMS and tell them she won't give you her bank account details to pay directly. The likely outcome is that you would be changed over to paying them but if you don't pay your ex, she's likely going to ask for that anyway.

Scared_dad

They told me that it was 20% based on my gross earnings. They sent me a letter in which stated by such and such I date I have to give them my earnings either by phone or sending in a wage slip, I rang them and also emailed a copy over they asked for my tax and NI contributions for that month also.... Which would also be high for that said month. I havent had a letter from them about any of it I rang them to to see how it was going and when would I hear anything only to be told what I originally posted. I have asked for everything to be sent out to me in the post so,I can review it in more detail and see if they missed something out in the telephone conversation.

I'm not asking to disregard my bonus just use the basic formula of splitting over the 12 months as an equal payment each month...
I do also have this question thou does the payments get re assessed every year or is it fixed? The reason I ask is that my earnings can change quite a lot over the period of 3 years. Since I have been with the company I am I with my first year I excelled my targets, which were then increased and I didn't achieve them the following year and this year they were re assessed and adjusted for this years sales targets which I have exceeded but not as much as year 1, based on this next year my targets would have increased again my earnings would be lower again?

CSAworkerx

Scared_dad wrote: »

That seems to make sense and I thought it was strange don't get me wrong I want to pay but I don't want to be bankrupt I understand that the 20% rule is right and I complete agree with that. Anyone know what to do in the mean time about maintenance paYments as she hasn't given me her banking details to by via BT or SO and I was paying cash directly posting it through the letterbox but I know that this cant be proved if she says that I haven't paid.... Would you leave the money to one side that I was paying her so when/if it gets reassessed I don't have to find it all at once or do I do what I was doing and hope that she don't say I haven't paid.... Bearing mind we are not on speaking terms and doesn't answer my calls or emails or reply to my solicitor

For your own safety, stop making voluntary payments and start putting money to one side, if your not on amicable terms with your PWC its just not worth the risk. Just know that when the time comes to run the sceduele, youll be asked for the arrears, if you have them to one side it wont be a shock.