If you could change one thing.

medsec_222

Overall I feel that a system of child support which takes account of the ability of both parents to pay would be fairer and would have other beneficial effects, a major one, being a reduction of applications to the Family Courts from parents who are unable to come to an agreement regarding shared care arrangements, especially when finance seems to be a stumbling block.

Parents need to work together in deciding how best to support their children. The blunt instrument of the CSA with its inflexibility is not in the best interests overall, of children and families. and I would like to see it gradually wound down except in cases where fathers refuse to support their children.

[Deleted User]

I have an ex that uses every trick in the book to avoid CSA payments. He told CSA he wasn't working when he was. I gave them employer details (it took two years for them to get around to assessing him at all so I didn't know what he was saying til they contacted me) but they haven't even chased this up. I keep saying to them, the DSS can check tax records etc where they believe fraud is taking place.., why can't you? And I keep getting the run around.

The whole saga is starting again, he may or may not be employed.., he won't give details to the CSA so they 'say' they are checking tax records. I look forward to it taking another two years for any results lol.

I realise there is going to be some delay but surely referring a nrp who may be hiding things to the tax office is easier than it seems (surely its possible to get a list of all previous earnings etc from the Tax office, if the DSS can do it surely the CSA can?)

Doing this with a reluctant nrp would save a lot of chasing around I think, and waiting for him to fill out forms a nrp has no intention of filling out. Say allow two months, three letters and then an enquiry is placed with the tax office.

CSAworkerx

@ Dean, As someone who works on the employed section, ive never actually checked tax records, Alltho i do not work in the debt department, which is where your case will be at this point.

The problem of fraud is we have no legal power to do anything to the nrp if he is falsely declaring income, That would be left up to the relevant authorities, If the nrp states hes not working we have a right to belive that, especially if hes claiming a benefit.

If hes self employed and dishonest, then he could easily be not declaring income, which again leaves the csa powerless.

if hes paid cash in hand, Again, nothing what so ever we can do to prove that, Im suprised your case has not gone to a DmD which would suggest we know hes working, can you give me a few details about job role / employed/self employed, How long at same company / how does he get paid.

Marisco

CSAworkerx wrote: »

@ Dean, As someone who works on the employed section, ive never actually checked tax records, Alltho i do not work in the debt department, which is where your case will be at this point.

The problem of fraud is we have no legal power to do anything to the nrp if he is falsely declaring income, That would be left up to the relevant authorities, If the nrp states hes not working we have a right to belive that, especially if hes claiming a benefit.

If hes self employed and dishonest, then he could easily be not declaring income, which again leaves the csa powerless.

if hes paid cash in hand, Again, nothing what so ever we can do to prove that, Im suprised your case has not gone to a DmD which would suggest we know hes working, can you give me a few details about job role / employed/self employed, How long at same company / how does he get paid.

Then maybe this is what needs changing! Sounds like the CSA needs an investigation arm to look into things like the above, as well as PWC who claim CB/CM fraudulently! This department could concentrate soley on SE NRP who claim they have no, or little income, PWC's who claim CB when they shouldn't etc etc.

I can understand why the staff don't have the time to look in depth at cases like this, with their workload, but from posts on here, there is definitely a need for the service though. They should have the power and be able to liase with HMCR and DWP re CB, a lot of cases could be sorted if this was available.

Cally_Smart

Well said,Mariso. Until these problems are addressed it can't be a fair system .They can't say they are all about supporting children while there are children suffering in this system. I feel it's all about collecting the money & the paying nrp's are an easy target-there definitely needs to be more contact between the different depts like Ch/ben ,HMRC etc in this day & age fraudulent activity can be checked in a millisecond on a computer!

[Deleted User]

kaz62 wrote: »

I fully agree Cally Smart, also the child gets EMA as long as they do attend which our PWC ensures gets used for some of the child's needs which should be met from maintenance being paid. As you say, if support and encouragement to complete assignments and succeed in the time spent at college with clear goals at the end of it were part of the plan we wouldn't mind.

EMA doesn't exist anymore. There is a discretionary bursary but this only covers fares and course expenses, and is only awarded if the parents are on benefits or the child is on ESA and DLA.

My son now goes to college and it costs me a fortune. I had to pay fares upfront (still waiting for a refund), he did get free school meals in school, now he's in college he doesn't so I am buying sandwich stuff and giving him a tenner a week, and I had to pay a fair bit for a complete sets of black clothes because he's doing drama. It might not sound like much but we are eating very sparsely - all of us. Forget spare money for anything else, I budget well but I am dreading the possibility of having to buy him another bus pass while the college gets its act together re the discretionary fund (which he has already been accepted for). And no, his father is not currently paying CM which possibly will be sorted in the end but meanwhile its hell to get through the week.

And most of the initial expenses had to be met while I was waiting for his Child tax credits to start up again. So its not much fun for parents on a budget lifestyle having kids in college. I'm finding it quite stressful.

Cally_Smart

I know where you're coming from .I was a single parent of 2 teenagers and a 2 year old before I met my husband.I had to look after them on what was then Income support & received no child maintenance from either nrp.If you did it was taken off your income support ( apart from £10,you were allowed to keep £10 of it ) I was always ringing up but getting nowhere! There was no such thing as tax credits then but we got free school meals ,prescriptions etc Looking back I wonder how I did it but I did and feel my family became very close through it & as adults they tend to help each other even now!I hope you finally get what is owed to you.
In my case being a single parent( even with no CM from the nrp but in control over my own finances) was a lot easier than being a nrpp and being left in this frustrating situation.Never though it could get this bad......I know I have the support of my husband now but all this stress takes its toll on a relationship....


I think EMA was only payable for the last year in college if it has started before the Government ended it, if you see where I'm coming from.

PreludeForTimeFeelers

You'd be double-handling work though - HMRC have teams of people to investigate tax fraud, and Child Benefit offices also have staff to look into this - how much more work do you want the CSA to take on? It's just too impractical.

The info that CSA get back from HMRC is literally just the tax year, and the income declared for that year. Because people are given a certain amount of time to declare their earnings for the past tax year, this isn't always that reflective of their true income (especially considering how many people think it's acceptable to cut down how much tax they pay where legal loopholes allow this).

[Deleted User]

Not talking about tax fraud.., agreed that is a seperate thing. But with the tax office being the office that keeps records of a person's work history.., and with the DSS being able to access these.., it should also be easy or made easy for the CSA to access these records in the case of suspected CM fraud.. nrp claiming they are not working when they are. Or when the NRP doesn't respond to the CSA for months and months.., and at present this seems to just be allowed to go on ad infinitum. Like I said before, allow two months, three letters and then apply for tax records. Even if its just a list of employers and time periods. Surely in the age of computers such a thing is possible? Even if different computer systems/data bases are used.., how long would it take to produce a print out and send it off from one office to another?

Yes there are situations where a nrp is self employed and this wouldn't help.., but that shouldn't prevent the CSA being able to access records where they do exist. At the moment I personally keep being told its difficult to do, it takes time, they can't do it (by different people).., but lol.., since 2005 my son's father has paid 7 months of CM lol. What can be longer than that?

PreludeForTimeFeelers

They can see where an Nrp is currently working, this is straight forward enough and just entails them emailing HMRC a certain form, HMRC then reply with the last known employer. This is fine for Nrps who are Woking legit. The turnaround for this is usually a week, and they'd do this after writing to the Nrp an getting no response - this happens currently. If the Nrp has left an employer then the end date will generally be in this form too.
There can sometimes be a slight delay in a company registering an Nrp for tax purposes, but it shouldn't be more than 6 weeks or so.