Paying to much

iluvmarmite

My son has been paying child support for his 13 year old daughter for the past 5 years, he was paying £280 per month which was taken directly from his wages. He moved last month and phoned the CSA to inform them, as he has to do this. After asking some questions, incomings out goings etc, he was told he should actually be paying £80 a month and has been paying £200 to much, this has been an error made by the CSA.

He has a partner who is having a baby in dec. his rent is £650 per month and of course all the usual bills with paying the child support him and his partner were left with 0 and often couldn't pay some bills so to have this extra £200 a month is a godsend. His ex partner is living with someone now, both work full time and are fairly well off, but that's neither here nor there.

His ex received a letter from the CSA today stating that there will be a drop in payments starting from Dec. well all hell has now broken loose, she is fuming and threatening all sorts, she said my son has to continue paying what he has been paying and calling him all sorts, anyway she said she is going to appeal the decision, what I would like to know is if the CSA has worked out that the correct payments are £80 per month, and he has been paying to much, can they reverse their decision if his ex appeals? Can she tell them she needs the £280 a month and they side with her? He's very worried as he thinks they will side with her.

Also considering this was their mistake, do they owe him any money? Would they have to pay back the money they took off him.

DUTR

Probably the £80 reflects the over payment, his ex can appeal, but if he has a new one on the way the reciepts are going to reduce anyway (once the new one arrives and he informs them). Good luck to him with his new family, hope he has made the right descision this time.

iluvmarmite

Thankyou for your reply, he thought he had made the right decision last time, but his ex decided that one man wasn't enough and went out every weekend, staying out overnight and openly bragging about her conquests to my son, so he decided enough was enough.

Caz3121

are you sure the £80 per month is the new figure and not an adjusted figure for overpayment. Unless his daughter stays overnight with him frequently, this implies his income is less than £600 per month (which could be right if he works part time)

Crellow4

His ex can challenge the assessment - has all his income been declared? If the family receives Tax Credits these should be included in the calculation.

DUTR

Crellow4 wrote: »

His ex can challenge the assessment - has all his income been declared? If the family receives Tax Credits these should be included in the calculation.

From the content of the original post, I don't think the new grandchild hasn't yet arrived. I agree the ex can appeal,and the son can appeal against the appeal. I don't think the OP's son should worry that the CSA will side with the ex, from the content they asked him questions and he answered to the best of his knowledge, I'm surprised though you didn't mention possible phasing of the payments as you are quite knowledgeable on the process's.

iluvmarmite

He did tell them, and faxed over proof of all his income and out goings, his daughter doesn't stay overnight because his ex won't allow it due to her not liking his new partner, he sees his daughter for 2 hours every Thursday, all I know is yesterday he got a letter from the CSA stating they would now be taking £80 a month from him instead of £280, his ex is fuming because she assumes he asked for this reduction and he didn't, he just phoned them to change his address and they asked how much his new rent is, he then mentioned that his new partner is pregnant and expects the baby in dec and the CSA asked for all his income and out goings, then she said he needs a new assessment and came back with that figure. He lives in Bournmouth but has to commute to Weymouth every day for work, his train ticket alone costs £260 a month, so maybe they take that into consideration as well as all the usual stuff.

iluvmarmite

Oh and he doesn't receive tax credits or housing benefits, they rely solely on his wages, and £50 a week his partner gets from a temp agency, he has declared this to the CSA and sent proof

Caz3121

If they are taking rent etc into consideration then I assume that the CSA case has been open for 10 years + as since CSA2 came in the calculation was as % of net income only with no housing costs taken into account
The OP mentioned paying for last 5 years so I assumed this was CSA2

shegirl

iluvmarmite wrote: »

He did tell them, and faxed over proof of all his income and out goings, his daughter doesn't stay overnight because his ex won't allow it due to her not liking his new partner, he sees his daughter for 2 hours every Thursday, all I know is yesterday he got a letter from the CSA stating they would now be taking £80 a month from him instead of £280, his ex is fuming because she assumes he asked for this reduction and he didn't, he just phoned them to change his address and they asked how much his new rent is, he then mentioned that his new partner is pregnant and expects the baby in dec and the CSA asked for all his income and out goings, then she said he needs a new assessment and came back with that figure. He lives in Bournmouth but has to commute to Weymouth every day for work, his train ticket alone costs £260 a month, so maybe they take that into consideration as well as all the usual stuff.

Then he must have been paying for over 10 years not the 5 years you state.

On the new system they take no notice of rent etc,they just take a percentage of pay.

Crellow4

DUTR wrote: »

From the content of the original post, I don't think the new grandchild hasn't yet arrived. I agree the ex can appeal,and the son can appeal against the appeal. I don't think the OP's son should worry that the CSA will side with the ex, from the content they asked him questions and he answered to the best of his knowledge, I'm surprised though you didn't mention possible phasing of the payments as you are quite knowledgeable on the process's.

Phasing will only apply if he's moving from 'Old Rules' to CS2 - wasn't clear from the post that this was the case. It sounds like a straightforward supersession to reflect new housing costs - but I could be wrong.
The effective dare if the new liability will be set by the date the NRP contacted the agency so it's unlikely he will be due a refund.