CSA & Separation Agreement

Dave13

Last year, my wife and I separated and are currently in the process of finalising our divorce proceedings.

When we first split, we had a separation agreement drawn up by solicitors to cover transfer of house, childcare arrangements etc.

It was stated that we would each pay 50% of the agreed childcare costs until such time as no longer necessary. One child (3) is in Full time nursery and the other (7) attends an After School Club. The agreed 50% is £225 currently.

My ex informed me today that she is meeting with CSA this week to also start a claim for maintenance payments.
She states that I would be liable to pay the CSA amount (online estimate £182 per month) PLUS the £225 agreed childcare bills.

Is this correct? or would CSA take into account the that fact I already pay child related fees?

Both amounts added would equal 37% of my salary.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

duchy

The CSA estimate sounds awfully low for two children ..especially for a family whose income can carry £500 plus a month in childcare....Does your wife earn a lot more than you ?
Are you currently paying any child support at all or just half the childcare ?

The CSA wouldn't force you to pay the childcare on top of the assessed amount .....but what then ? Does your wife need to give up work ? Would you be happy to see your youngest child miss out on nursery because Mum couldn't afford it ? Would you be prepared to have the elder child after school rather than pay for after school care ?

Not quite as simple as "What is the legal minimum ?" in a lot of cases.

Read up on tax credits if your wife is not a high earner as a large proportion of childcare may be covered .

A lot depends on what you earn TBH but £18 a week per week per child sounds like very inadequate child support unless you're a low earner....Maybe run the numbers through the calculator again ?

mgdavid

the CSA calculation for 2 children is 20% of your NET salary, less one seventh if you have them to stay overnight more than 52 nights per year (and more, pro rata).. The CSA won't be intererested in factoring in or taking childcare costs into account, that is entirely a private arrangement between you and your ex, over and above the CSA maintenance figure.
It's probably unfair to comment further as we don't know all the facts of the situation.

What is the legal standing of the Separation Agreement you mention? I find it difficult to understand how your solicitor would have agreed the childcare payment without taking into account the CSA maintenance liability. If you cannot get out of the SA then you may be in a difficult position but read this document, page 33 should help.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@benefits/documents/digitalasset/dg_198849.pdf.

PS - @duchy - I make it £21/week not 18; the OP's numbers indicate net salary of 1100 so 180-odd seems about right.

Dumbe

Do you pay the money to your ex or to the childcare provider.

If you pay to your ex, I would suggest amending the description to child maintanence or similar if you want the csa to take account of it and pay it into her bank account. E.g child maintence for oct 2013.

That way you satisfy the agreement to pay the 225 plus the csa ( unless they calculate it higher in which case the 225 may increase slightly)

The csa will only start the clock from when your ex puts in a claim so if you previously worded the payment differently then I don't think that will matter .

If you pay the provider of the childcare directly then I am pretty sure the csa will not take account of it.

Gigglepig

Dumbe wrote: »

Do you pay the money to your ex or to the childcare provider.

If you pay to your ex, I would suggest amending the description to child maintanence or similar if you want the csa to take account of it and pay it into her bank account. E.g child maintence for oct 2013.

That way you satisfy the agreement to pay the 225 plus the csa ( unless they calculate it higher in which case the 225 may increase slightly)

The csa will only start the clock from when your ex puts in a claim so if you previously worded the payment differently then I don't think that will matter .

If you pay the provider of the childcare directly then I am pretty sure the csa will not take account of it.

If OP rewords it to "child maintanance" he will presumably still owe his ex for "childcare" under the private agreement.

But - you might be able to save a fair bit if you can pay the childcare provider directly using childcare vouchers from your employer. Is that an option you could discuss with your employer/ex?

OP sorry but I don't see why it is fair that your ex should pay for everything apart from 50% of childcare. Seems like this private agreement was perfectly reasonable. Sadly, you will be worse off running two households instead of one, divorce = expensive and things might be tight for a while. Childcare costs will go down as the children get older, but then there might be oter expenses like uni....

RAS

I think separate agreements can be modified after one year anyway?

I suggest the OP works out how much the CSA is and pays that promptly, and tells ex to ake the child care out of that.

Did the separation agreement give your ex more assets in exchange for lower income?

PreludeForTimeFeelers

mgdavid wrote: »

the CSA calculation for 2 children is 20% of your NET salary, less one seventh if you have them to stay overnight more than 52 nights per year (and more, pro rata).. The CSA won't be intererested in factoring in or taking childcare costs into account, that is entirely a private arrangement between you and your ex, over and above the CSA maintenance figure.

It won't make much of a difference I know, but the new case will be on the 2012 scheme, therefore it'll be based on the gross income rather than net income. The percentages will be slightly different too.

CSAworkerx

in terms of would we take the childcare costs into consideration? No. We override court orders after 1 year exactly, Meaning unless specifically stating MAINTENANCE we ignore the rest of it basically. So on the 2003 scheme and im pretty sure the new scheme aswell, we would tell you to pay X to cover any and all costs for your children, whether you pay more would be up to you, and the pwc cannot claim maintenance and enforce a court order at the same time, in reguards to the children that is, housing split ect thats nothing to do with us.

Reminds me of a case ive heard about that happend years and years ago, nrp paid £60,000 to the pwc for 14 years maintenance, in one lump sum, the pwc accepted, 12 months later made an application and the nrp became liable from that date even though the agreement was in place, i think it was due to the wording of the court order, this may never have happened but i heard it from a caseworker who heard it from another ect.

EclipsedMind

Without seeing the separation agreement wording its hard to say whether its a miss in the drafting and you are still liable for the maintenance in addition to nursery fees. If the agreement makes it clear that the nursery fees are in lieu of maintenance then you could justify stopping the payments and just pay the CSA. Be aware that in theory you could be taken to court for breach for not paying the nursery fees depending on wording.

In the case where you are liable for both then it might be time to hurry through the ancillary relief in the divorce proceedings which will then set aside the agreement.

Many couples prefer to reach an agreement about financial matters arising out of their separation without involving any Court procedures at all. The way this can be achieved is for them to sign a written legal document which incorporates the agreement they have reached. Commonly, such agreements deal with confirmation that the parties to the marriage are to live apart and the manner in which maintenance and/or property are to be dealt with.

There are no restrictions on what can or cannot be included in such an agreement. If one of the parties fails to comply with the terms of the Separation Agreement, the other party can sue for breach of contract. In any enforcement proceedings, the Separation Agreement will not be held to be binding unless the parties gave full and frank disclosure of their financial circumstances when entering into the Agreement.

It is important to bear in mind that should either person make a subsequent financial application to the Court, the Court is not bound by the financial arrangements contained in the Separation Agreement.

Bluemeanie_2

I must stick up for the OP. I think you're a bit out of order. He asked a simple question, does he have to pay CSA plus childcare? A lot of posters seem to have jumped down his throat giving opinions without knowing the facts, maybe he still pays the mortgage and bills etc and just didn't go into all the details as he was asking a straight forward question about how much he should pay etc. I'm not saying a bloke deserves a medal for paying for his kids, but by rights he could have gone to the CSA from the start and paid ONLY the lower amount, or done what some people we know about do and quit his job etc.

Seems a little unfair to me to be so judgmental and harsh to someone, a without knowing all the facts and b when he is already paying above the minimum voluntarily.

CSAworkerx

Cant really see anywhere, where people had a go at him, giggle maybe but myself + prelude and the rest seemed to be trying to help?