No maintenance received

EastMidsGal

I was due to receive maintenance today but have been informed by the CSA that they have not received it from my ex's employer yet. I rely on that money for my bills and work my budget taking it into account. All my bills are due to go out next week. Has anyone experienced this before? What usually happens? It has always been regular till now

DUTR

Are you sure there is not a change of circumstance? Loss of employment perhaps?

EastMidsGal

I spoke to my ex in the week and he didn't mention anything. We're hardly friends but we're on better terms now than we were. He told me work was messing him about with his days off and he was hoping to have weekends off soon which would enable easier contact with our son. Unless it was a very sudden layoff, I am sure he wouldn't have been talking the way he was. He works for a huge major high street company so it wouldn't have suddenly folded

HoneyNutLoop

Employers have until the 19th of the month following the one in which they took the deduction to forward it to the CSA, who then have to wait for the bank to clear the funds before they can forward it to you, and then you have to wait for your bank to clear the funds. What this means is that if the payment was taken in February, the employer doesn't have to forward the deduction to the CSA until 19th March, and if they wait til the last day, you probably wouldn't see the money as cleared funds til the beginning of April. While you may have gotten used to them paying it well before the deadline, there's nothing the CSA can or will do to force the employer to continue paying early. They won't take any action til after the 19th.

If, on the other hand, you're still waiting on the payment that was deducted in January, as you should have that money by now even accounting for all the potential delays in the process, I would be calling the CSA to find out what's happening.

So, it depends which month's deduction you're waiting on as to what the process is.

It's also possible, if your ex was paid much less than normal (maybe due to leave, sickness, lack of overtime, etc) that the employer has not been able to deduct anything due to the protected earnings proportion. Again, you'd have to speak to the CSA to find out if this is the case. If that has happened, you will get nothing for the month, and the employer would have to try to make up the shortfall in the following months' deductions.