£1000 arrears at £5/week for 4 years?

audigex

Hi

A friend is recipient of CSA, and the non-resident parent has built up arrears of over £1000.

They currently pay at a rate of £200/month, suggesting an income of around £1300/month.

The repayment they've negotiated with the CSA would push this to £220 per month, meaning they pay off the £1000 at a rate of £5 a week over 3.9 years.

Now it's pretty obvious that someone on £1300 a month isn't likely to suffer excessive financial hardship by paying more than an extra £10/month - it's not like he's on JSA. And he lives with his parents, so is hardly short of cash... So a couple of questions

1) how has he pulled this off, considering the CSA aims to pay it off over 2 years, and that £1000 isn't an excessive amount (I can understand £5000 May take longer to pay off)

2) is there any way to appeal this? £5 per week will leave the resident parent in relatively more hardship, considering they had to borrow money off friends to cover his lapsed payments

Surely there's no good reason the CSA have jumped past the usual 'up to 40% aiming to take it over a maximum 2 year period' which would still leave it as £240 per month... Hardly an excessive amount on that salary

justontime

How can you possibly know that he won't suffer financial hardship? Clearly CSA have accepted the repayment arrangement and they wouldn't have done so without good reason.

audigex

Because I know he spends more than that £10 on beer in a week? And does plenty of work on the side....

Okay, a less 'I know the situation' question: is there any way to appeal the amount and ask for it to be independently reviewed? His situation seems to be the only one in question, surely they have to take both into account? Considering the resident parent has had to take loans to cover his lack of payment, earns half as much as he does and is paying for a house and child.....

Is it a 'he's spoken to them, end of story' situation, or can she appeal? Because that repayment rate is no use to anybody - the original £200 a month would have helped support the child, £5 a week is no use to anybody

shoe*diva79

audigex wrote: »

Because I know he spends more than that £10 on beer in a week? And does plenty of work on the side....

Okay, a less 'I know the situation' question: is there any way to appeal the amount and ask for it to be independently reviewed? His situation seems to be the only one in question, surely they have to take both into account? Considering the resident parent has had to take loans to cover his lack of payment, earns half as much as he does and is paying for a house and child.....

Is it a 'he's spoken to them, end of story' situation, or can she appeal? Because that repayment rate is no use to anybody - the original £200 a month would have helped support the child, £5 a week is no use to anybody

She can call the CSA and ask them to increase the amount he is paying for arrears but if it will work or not is another thing.

My ex had £4200 of arrears at one point which were being paid off at £10 per week despite his weekly net income being £800!

PreludeForTimeFeelers

shoe*diva79 wrote: »

She can call the CSA and ask them to increase the amount he is paying for arrears but if it will work or not is another thing.

My ex had £4200 of arrears at one point which were being paid off at £10 per week despite his weekly net income being £800!

The PWC/Receiving Parent's wishes aren't really taken as a factor in debt negotiation, they usually look at factors such as whether the NRP has children living in their household, whether there is any shared care. They also use credit reference sites similar to Experian to see what other debts the NRP has.