Csa help and advice

Lizab

Hi. My husband pays for his daughter who is 19 this year. He has never seen her and I don't even think she knows he exists. We have 2 children of our own and have paid £400 a month for as long as I can remember. Anyway I have recently found out a few things through a social networking site that she goes to college part time, has a part time job and at the weekend has moved into A flat on her own. The question is shoukd my husband still be paying?????? I have phoned the csa but will have to do a change of circumstances form which scares me incase they want to take even me from us. Thanks xx

13Kent

If she is living away from the PWC then as far as the CSA are concerned there should be nothing payable as the PWC is no longer caring for her. However proving that is another thing entirely which is what we discovered when the child in question in our case did moved out from the family home. Proving they have moved out is very difficult, especially as they as the PWC to confirm if the child is still living there - and our PWC would not admit that the child had moved out or she would not only have lost her CSA money but also her child benefit for that child. Also if they get wind of you trying to prove the child has moved out all they have to do is move back in you have no case! Once thing you can do however is to query whether Child Benefit is still being paid. We suspected that it had ceased in our case and we informed the CSA that we thought it had ceased, they investigated and the case was reassessed as they discovered that CB was no longer being paid and we did not have to pay for the child any longer.
Had we not queried it then no doubt we would probably still be paying.

Some college courses, even apprenticeships where the 'child' has a wage in their own right are still counted as education, and CSA is still payable until the child is 19 in such cases. Only further education like a full time university course means that CSA is no longer payable.

Be aware that a "change of circumstances" is different to a reassessment in that it just looks at one aspect of the case, and isn't a full reassessment. But it's possible that if you instigate a change of circumstances then the PWC could also ask for a reassessment herself, and you could end up paying more if your husbands' wages have increased since the last assessment, or if you are contributing to the household income. By the same token if you didn't have your children when they last assessement was done they can be taken into account and may make a difference to the assessment also.

However I do believe that the CSA liability ends when the child reaches 19 anyway, so if that's not a long way off, and you don't want to rock the boat maybe you'd feel happier asking for a change of circumstances once the child is 19.

PreludeForTimeFeelers

13Kent wrote: »

However I do believe that the CSA liability ends when the child reaches 19 anyway, so if that's not a long way off, and you don't want to rock the boat maybe you'd feel happier asking for a change of circumstances once the child is 19.

The legislation changed a while back, and the definition of a child now includes up until the 20th birthday.