Advice for common problems you may face.

HappyMJ

jarhead66 wrote: »

Thanks for your honest reply CSAworkerx, its the first time that anyone from the CSA has been honest about transfering over to CSA2 from CSA1,
I am one of those N.R.P's who is still stuck on CSA1 due to mismanagement by the CSA, To top it all my payments where due to finish in January this year, but another year has been added on, due to the C.B. being extended until the child is twenty,What I dread most like most N.R.P's is the postman, as one brown envelope from the CSA can mean another assessment,
I can now look forward to January 2015, the date that my CSA case closes so that i can start to have a normal life, my G/F of 12 yrs will be able to stay with me more nights (3 nights is the limit as per J.S.A. rules) or even move in with me, without a letter from the CSA demanding her payslips, or i will get a £1000 fine,
For those of you who don't understand how it works for us N.R.P's still on CSA1,
They take your housing costs into consideration, but not your living costs, all they have to do by law is leave you with the same amount as you would get on J.S.A. So if my G/F did move in with me they could leave us with little more that what a couple would get on J.S.A. Why should my G/F give up everything that she has worked for to go back to living on J.S.A. all this is proved if you look on what they have to leave you with (protected income) on your CSA1 letter

JSA does not have a rule saying a friend can stay at your house any particular number of nights per week. It's a myth.

She can, if she has a house of her own and pays her own rent/mortgage bills etc... stay over every night of the week if you want her to. She cannot contribute anything at all towards your rent/gas/electric etc... All her mail must still go to her address....what she does at night is up to her and if she wants to come around and cuddle up with you then she can do that every night. My personal suggestion if you want be together but not take the next step to full dependant relationship is to stay at each others house for 3 nights each week so you are in neither house for the majority of the time. You then stay in each of your own houses for the 4th night each week. That's not a rule though.

pammii

If what I am reading is true then how come my kids dad has been in a relationship and living with his girlfriend for god knows how long, but many years and they are actually getting married soon, she works as a nurse in a hospital, her income hasn't been taken into consideration when trying to get maintenance for my kids? I've had nothing for them for years now.

Marisco

medsec_222 wrote: »

The CSA should get right back to basics and do the job it was set up for. And that is to trace, find, and charge fathers who refuse to maintain their children. Leave dads who are already contributing substationally to the upbringing of their children alone.

Spot on!!!

shoe*diva79

pammii wrote: »

If what I am reading is true then how come my kids dad has been in a relationship and living with his girlfriend for god knows how long, but many years and they are actually getting married soon, she works as a nurse in a hospital, her income hasn't been taken into consideration when trying to get maintenance for my kids? I've had nothing for them for years now.

Iffyour case was opened from 2003 onwards then its not taken into consideration. Rightly so, they are not her children, why should she pay for them? Its your ex that needs to pay. And if he isnt then why? Does he have a job?

jarhead66

Hello PAMMIL,
I take it that you are on CSA2 ( started in 2003) as that does not take your ex's partners income into account, That is why they are allowed to live together without any persecution from the CSA.

CSAworkerx

Cally_Smart wrote: »

We just want a fair Child support system that acknowledges what each parent provides & doesnt disregard every thing that the nrp does believing the pwc everytime ! Our case is a perfect example.Despite providing for the children from the start they have been too quick to take everything our pwc says as gospel leaving us with massive 'arrears'.It has been a great struggle to keep our heads above water this year when CSA wanted to take up to 40% of wages. Finally they agreed on over 25% but as we didnt qualify for any tax credits( they work them out before a quarter of wage goes to her !)it has left us counting every penny to feed & clothe ourselves and young son age 7.

There simply isnt one, and there never will be, I could list 20 things in about 2 minuetes that id say was unfair within the CSA, but this will always happen when you have tens of thousands of cases and 1 system, Nrps will belive it works in the pwcs favor and vice versa, its always been the same and it wont change.

As for your case, tell me what the pwc has told the csa, and what evidence you have to discredit what she has said, and ill tell you exactly how to get a re-assessment, as you havent provided much detail i cant help you.

Cally_Smart

Thanks CSAworkerx for trying to help.You have obviously put a lot into your posts typing out as much as you have in your detailed posts .I have been on here (this forum) for prob 18 months now trying to understand the system.I have made lots of posts with the gist of our problems with the CSA.We are just angry that we paid the pwc direct ,it went on for many years,she wont admit payments.We have to pay all over again at such a high rate (they tried for 40%!) and as a result we have had to live on virtually nothing to pay the household bills & keep roof over our heads. CSA havent cared & treated us like nrp who wont pay at all.Why wont they count our bank statements to pwc -they dismissed them because pwc wont say they were CM payments .Would she have waited all those years if she wasnt getting anything from us -I think not !!I think they have been very unfair & will keep fighting (we won one tribunal -the CSA didn't bring a single piece of paper with them about our case-said they'd lost it !!)

CSAworkerx

Cally_Smart wrote: »

Thanks CSAworkerx for trying to help.You have obviously put a lot into your posts typing out as much as you have in your detailed posts .I have been on here (this forum) for prob 18 months now trying to understand the system.I have made lots of posts with the gist of our problems with the CSA.We are just angry that we paid the pwc direct ,it went on for many years,she wont admit payments.We have to pay all over again at such a high rate (they tried for 40%!) and as a result we have had to live on virtually nothing to pay the household bills & keep roof over our heads. CSA havent cared & treated us like nrp who wont pay at all.Why wont they count our bank statements to pwc -they dismissed them because pwc wont say they were CM payments .Would she have waited all those years if she wasnt getting anything from us -I think not !!I think they have been very unfair & will keep fighting (we won one tribunal -the CSA didn't bring a single piece of paper with them about our case-said they'd lost it !!)

Ok, firstly was the case open at the time you were making voluntary payments? If so, What was the method of collection at the time? Secondly, If your nrp had split with his Ex, and sent money to her bank, As a caseworker id have to assume it was for child maintenance, what else would it be for?

Its a shame that if a PWC whole heartdly denies money recived is for CM then we have to belive that and put the burden of proof on the NRP, this is why i go agasint what i was taught and tell nrps NOT to make any payments while a case is open, Unless they are 100% certain they can trust their pwc to accept they were for CM.

My advice would be to ring in once per week and demand a re-assessment based on the fact you made VP's and have bank statements to prove it, if the right caseworker picks up the phone, you may get that re-assessment, id continue trying every week.

Cally_Smart

Shame we didn't get you as our caseworker! Well,we had to agree to pay the arrears or they would have gone for the DEO & we know we couldn't have managed to live on what we had left! We keep thinking it'a all a big mistake which will be sorted out soon but the longer it goes on it seems more unlikely it will happen......we've had a stressful 18 months.

julie2710

medsec_222 wrote: »

Before any mums on here start belly-aching, just remember that at least you get child benefit, child tax credit and if you are working 16 hours, you wll get working tax family credit. Contrast that with dad - he only gets the grasping hands of the CSA dipping into his pockets.

I love the way people always jump on this old bandwagon! I for one am glad the CSA tell exs how much they should pay!

For the last 5 years I've bought up my two sons on my own. I'm not entitled to child tax credits, in fact they said I was for two and a half years and then decided they had overpaid me! Not because of an error on my part but an error on theirs. I'm currently repaying it! I work full time, I don't get working family tax credits. My ex has paid me £88 in the last 3 years via the CSA as he seems to be able to manage to dodge them too! Oh and just to rub salt in the wound I'm no longer entitled to Child Benefit!

I pay a mortgage, all my bills, pre and after school care, childminders and everything my boys need, so lets quit the "all single mums are money grabbing, benefit rich whiners!" Everyone should just face the facts that if a marriage breaks down and there are children involved then, in the most part, everyone is going to end up with a change in their financial circumstances!