New CSA system guidance please

Top_Girl

A brief background:

- I am PWC of one son aged 9, his father has him two nights per week, two weeks out of three

- DEO in place after his refusal to pay maintenance as an attempt at control following our split almost four years ago

- He has been charged with harassment twice since I asked him to leave

- I have a text/email trail of unreasonable and verbally abusive behaviour for the last four years that proves that he resents paying for his son and his non-compliance with the contact order and harassment warnings.


On these grounds, will I be entitled to immediately apply for CSA intervention for the maintenance payments for my son?

I will quite happily pay the fee to ensure that I do not have to have unnecessary contact with him and to ensure that regular payments are maintained, due to his previous behaviour.

HoneyNutLoop

What do you mean by "apply immediately for CSA intervention?"

As you have an existing CSA case, with a DEO for non-compliance, your case will be classed as "segment 5" for the closure regime. This means that your case will be among one of the last tranches to be closed, likely sometime during 2017 if all remains on schedule.

All existing cases will receive a letter when their case is selected for case closure, giving them at least 6 months notice of the closure date. After you have received that letter, you are able to apply to CMS for a case, via CM options, so that there is no break between your CSA case closing at the end of the notice period, and your CMS case starting. This application will be subject to a £20 fee, unless you meet the waiver criteria.

Originally, government intended to apply a "clean slate" approach to the new CMS case, allowing all Paying Parents the opportunity to select Direct Pay from the outset, to avoid charging. However, following the response to the consultation document on the subject, they have changed their mind. They now propose the following approach to "segment 5" cases:
Payment continuity
20. In a change from our previous clean slate approach to all non-resident parents entering the 2012 scheme, we will ensure that non-resident parents who are in enforced methods of payment, or who are subject to ongoing enforcement action, whose cases are proactively closed will have to pass a positive compliance test. This is in order for these non-resident parents to be allowed to exercise the choice to pay via Direct Pay and thereby avoid collection fees, if a case is opened on the 2012 scheme.

21. It must be recognised that not all cases that are in enforced methods of payment are there because of recent non-compliance. It is, therefore, only fair that we apply a positive filter mechanism to ensure that those parents who are willing to pay through an unenforced method of payment are given a fair chance to do so and thereby avoid collection fees.

22. We will write to parents in segment 5 before their case is due to close to inform them the non- resident parent is to be given a compliance opportunity through which they will be able to demonstrate a willingness to comply voluntarily over a period of six months leading up to the closure of the case. We believe that a six-month test period strikes a sensible balance between ensuring the non-resident parent is capable and willing to pay voluntarily and ensuring all parties to the case are able to benefit from the new scheme without undue delay.

23. Depending on the characteristics of the case, we intend to offer the following three variants of compliance opportunity:
a. where there are arrears – the non-resident parent may agree to make regular, defined, voluntary payments to reduce these arrears. This would be on top of the continued enforced collection of ongoing maintenance;
b. no arrears – if the non-resident parent has no arrears, in addition to ongoing maintenance they will be given the opportunity to pay part of their ongoing maintenance voluntarily, while continuing to pay the balance by the enforced method; or
c. alternatively, we will also work with the banks to investigate the viability of freezing a lump sum surety from a credit card in a similar manner as car hire companies already do, thereby allowing the non-resident parent to pay the full ongoing liability via an unenforced method of payment but, in the event of non-payment of maintenance, we would deduct maintenance from that surety.

24. We will adopt a zero-tolerance approach within the compliance opportunity and it will be for the non-resident parent to ensure they make agreed payments in full and on-time. If they fail, without good reason, to pay in full and on time throughout the entire period they will be returned to an enforced method of payment in the CSA scheme and deemed unlikely to pay for the purposes of the 2012 scheme. Similarly, if the non-resident parent fails to take up the compliance opportunity, they may likewise be deemed unlikely to pay.

25. Non-resident parents who are deemed unlikely to pay will then be placed directly into the 2012 scheme collection service with the same method of enforced payment as they were subject to in the 1993 or 2003 schemes, thereby minimising disruption to continuity of payment as parents move from the older schemes into the 2012 scheme.

cakeforbrains

This is excellent information. Thank you. Do you have a link to the full document?

HoneyNutLoop

Yes. This link should work: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/265174/childrens-futures-consultation-response.pdf

Top_Girl

That's fantastic HoneyNutLoop, thank you so much.

I had no idea what was happening, only that I hadn't had this letter.

PreludeForTimeFeelers

Top_Girl wrote: »

That's fantastic HoneyNutLoop, thank you so much.

I had no idea what was happening, only that I hadn't had this letter.

That was one of my issues with the press story - they'd combined two separate things (case closure and the introduction of charging) into one story which was confusing.

The only people who should have received letters so far are those on the new system where ongoing maintenance payments are being made voluntarily and there are no arrears.

Letters regarding case closure won't be going out to the majority of people for a while yet.