CSA help

jones463

can anyone advise ,I have been paying CSA for some years and have now remarried my wife is a full time student with no income....does this make her a dependant ? I have had small discussion reference this with CSA on phone and was told be careful as the CSA claim is for house hold so when my wife qualifies we will be assessed on both our wages is this true ?? I am also aware of a lady who's husband has stopped paying his payments due to leaving work although his new wife is working the lady was told that as the ex husband and the new wife have no children together therefore the CSA cannot claim any money from her wages is this correct ??? please can someone help have had year's of problems with CSA and I am a t the end of my tether ....thanks for any help in advance alun

Guest101

Your wife is not liable to pay for your children.


Your children shouldn't suffer because your wife doesn't work.

MataNui

CSA are talking crap. The assessment is based solely on your income. There can be a deduction for dependents in your new house but as far as i am aware that only applies to any new children that are yours (might apply for step children if you are married but i am not sure).

It definitely is nothing at all to do with household income and if an employee of CSA told you that then the moron should be sacked.

Under CSA1 which ended years ago they did ask for partners income. CSA claimed this was for people in your situation and would never increase an NRPs assessment. Like most of the stuff from CSA this turned out to be BS as many people with higher earning new partners found CSA reduced the amount they were entitled to claim for housing costs thus increasing their assessments.

Asking CSA for advise on the phone is a waste of time. Dont bother again. You never know if the person you speak to has the faintest idea of what they should say or just plain lies for the hell of it.

13Kent

If you are on CSA 1 your wife's income will be taken into account as her ability to contribute to the household bills will be considered therefore leaving you with more disposable income to be taken into account for CSA payments. When my husband and I married and the CSA were given details of my income, although we were told it wasn't taken into account for assessment my husband's payments went up by £200 a month.

CSA 1 didn't end years ago by the way, there have been no new CSA 1 cases for years, but us and a lot of others are still on CSA 1 and being assessed on the CSA 1 system for our payments until our cases come to an end or get transferred to the more recent system of CMS.

MataNui

OK, yes. CSA1 ended for 'New' cases.
13Kent is pretty much confirming CSA lies. They said providing your partners income could only reduce your payments but many saw those payments increase.

Although the information was requested there was no legal compulsion to supply it. If you refused the CSA would have to assume a 50:50 split on the allowable household bills. This is why anyone with a higher earning partner lost out. CSA would reduce the NRPs share of the bills meaning more available for them to assess.

As i said. you didnt have to supply the information and CSA could take no action if you refused. I wrote "none of your f**king business' across all questions relating to my partner.

13Kent

We were told if we refused we'd be subject to an "interim assessment" which might have ended up in us paying more.

justontime

13Kent wrote: »

We were told if we refused we'd be subject to an "interim assessment" which might have ended up in us paying more.

Yes they used to say that but it was very unlikely that you would pay more. If you had an interim assessment it they didn't do the final part of the calculation to work out your protected income so if you were on an exceptionally low income you may have paid slightly less if that part of the calculation was done, otherwise it made no difference. In fact there was a rule about interim assessments not being able to be backdated and if there was a change of circumstances which would result in a higher assessment that was sometimes an advantage.

CSA1 was very complicated and very unfair (to both sides) in various ways. The new system may not be perfect but it's a lot clearer and easier to understand.

MataNui

They did used to claim it was compulsory but that was a lie. There was never any legal obligation under any of the CSA schemes to disclose your partners income or even the fact that you had a partner. Its just another example of the CSA making up the law as they go. Fortunately now those scum are soon to be no more. To be honest i doubt CMS will have any more integrity but at least with CMS the calculation is simpler.

WYSPECIAL

13Kent wrote: »

We were told if we refused we'd be subject to an "interim assessment" which might have ended up in us paying more.

It would only be a Category B interim assessment though which meant the final calculation for protected income was not carried out. This would only have made a difference in a few low income households. In 95% of cases it made no difference.

Most people I knew in the situation at the time simply told the CSA that their partner would not give them details of their income and that the CSA would have to contact them themselves.

Since the law didn't allow them to no more was heard about it.

13Kent

We knew they could not force me to give my details, however we were told that an interim assessment would mean that they would probably double the amount that was being paid, so with that threat in mind we passed on the details.

Fission

MataNui wrote: »

13Kent is pretty much confirming CSA lies. They said providing your partners income could only reduce your payments but many saw those payments increase.

That was impossible under CSA1. The assessment of partner income could reduce liability or leave it unchanged. It could not increase liability. Absolutely not.

MataNui wrote: »

As i said. you didnt have to supply the information and CSA could take no action if you refused.

Actually, if you didn't supply information about partner income, there were certain steps the CSA had to take, so far from not being able to take any action.

MataNui wrote: »

I wrote "none of your f**king business' across all questions relating to my partner.

Do you think that helped anyone (even yourself)?