Question Re Maintenance Required

skibadee

On my husbands assessment forms from CSA it says payment required for this assessment £88.00...payment patable taking into account exempt income £84.76.
Obviously if he earnt more he would be expected to pay the full £88.00....but would he be expected to pay anymore?,,,,he is assessed under the old system,

kelloggs36

It is difficult to say at this stage. Is it saying that the Maintenance Requirement is £88 per week? If so, then his Exempt Income leaves him with an assessable income which is less than the maintenance requirement of £84.76. Does he actually have to pay this taking into account the protected income? If so, then he is paying the maximum.

Strapped

OP, I think that your question is, if he earnt more money, such that he could meet the full £88pw, would he also be required to pay more than this if he could afford it? The answer is yes. This link gives some info about how the old rules work (not that easy to find anymore on the CSA site):

http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/PDF/leaflets/old/CSA2001.pdf

My understanding (and we are also on old rules) is that the CSA will work out the "income available for maintenance" as [net income] - [exempt income]. If half of this amount is more than the maintenance required (the £88 pw in your case) then they will also have a slice of the amount higher than £88 (15% for one child, 20% for two, etc) although the calculation is also ammended if you have children living with you, or if he has the kids for more than a certain number of nights per week, so you should read the above carefully. (The CSA have made a mistake on each and every re-assessment they have ever made for my hubby! It's sooooo flippin' compicated!)

skibadee

Seems like what ever you can't win....unless you or your partners ex is amicable and will sort maintenance out without CSA involvement.......I WISH!!

Strapped

My personal opinion is that it's fair that all the kids should benefit from an increase in their parents' wages, but the way it's worked out and some of the rules can make for some strange outcomes from the CSA formula.