Confused- csa case closed but son still in college!

justontime

Pennn wrote: »

Would the csa have contacted him before now if he owed money? I know he's worried about the letter.

Do they automatically reassess when a case closes? As I said, he's always paid but not been assessed since 2006.

You would hope so but no, they can discover (alleged) arrears going back years and they can write to you out of the blue demanding payment for thousands. It happened to my husband a couple of years ago it is a very long story but basically they said he owed a huge amount for a period over 15 years previously. They had never ever mentioned the 'arrears' before and they had previously checked his account and refunded overpayments on several occasions so there was not even a hint of arrears. He didn't owe the money but it was only luck that meant he was able to prove it. We went through hell for months trying to deal with it and there are others on here who faced similar situations who are still fighting to prove their case.

Unless your brother has changed his address or gone into hiding he should have been notified of any reassessment. They will look at the case when they close it and check for arrears before refunding any overpayment.

Pennn

It's frightening.

I still can't work out why it has closed. My nephew didn't get very good grades and is basically attending classes to try and get some English and maths qualifications. He's very vague about it all. It seems the only courses where you aren't entitled to CB and therefore csa are higher level ones.

I'm now wondering if the case has closed because they want to move them on to a private agreement!? My brother said this wasn't mentioned in the call but...

FBaby

It is most likely what has been stated above, she stopped claiming CB because the governement has decided that families on higher salaries shouldn't be entitled to it and now because of a loop hole, where historically, entitlement to child maintenance is linked to claiming CB, they might have a fight on their hand to get that.

It's great to be a resident step-father. Your income is taken into consideration when it comes to a child that is not theirs, and now, that might even mean that the actual father is absolve of their responsibility to their own child as a result...

Thankfully, she can still choose to reclaim CB and the money to be deducted from his income and then, assuming of course that his course would make the child elligible, go back to claiming maintenance.