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Hi everyone, I just registered and I'm looking for some advice on dealing with the csa.
I have a 15 month old son to my ex partner who I just recently split with 5 weeks ago.
I have only had one day with my son in 5 weeks since the relationship ended my ex is full of excuses when I try to make contact threw my mother asking for my son to spend time with him I get back her mums got him or he's not been well etc.
Then today I recieve a letter from the csa saying she had contacted them and that an application was being made against me. Not once in the 5 week has she asked for money for him I agree I should pay for my son and have no problems doing so. There is no reasoning with my ex and today I said I would pay her direct money into her account which she refuses so take it will go threw the csa but what sort of stuff do they ask ? I also have another child who's mother I pay direct into her bank does this effect the claim for my son do the csa take into consideration that I already pay for another child when deciding how much I need pay my ex for this claim against me and can I disagree with paying threw them because I simply want to pay for my son just don't feel the need to do it threw a third party and have to deal with them and pay there add ons my ex is using my son as a weapon and Im not sure what I can do about it as its come as a bit of a shock at the way she has behaved towards me but if she refuses to take money direct into her account will the csa make me pay there fees even though it's her who is unwilling to accept direct payment then shouldn't it be her who pays the fees for using the csa ?
Any advice would be great thanks
Paul.
Hello Cfcpaul83
A paying parent may pay child maintenance for more than one child, both through the Child Maintenance Service and via a family-based arrangement. In this situation the Child Maintenance Service would take into account any maintenance that is being paid through the family-based arrangement.
If your ex-partner has made an application for Collect and Pay via the Child Maintenance Service, there are collection and paying out fees involved with this. The paying parent must pay a 20% fee on top of each child maintenance payment collected by the Child Maintenance Service. The receiving parent is charged a 4% fee each time the Child Maintenance Service passes on a child maintenance payment to them. However, if your ex-partner has made an application for Collect and Pay, you can request to use Direct Pay.
I have included a link that provides further information on the Child Maintenance Service that you may find useful, https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance.
For more information on the different ways to set up child maintenance, you can visit the Child Maintenance Options website at http://www.cmoptions.org.
The DWP have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families. The link is: www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.
Regards
William
Hi william
Thanks for your advice. So I spoke with child maintance just now and they said that they will contact my ex partner for her bank details to pay her direct but they are getting a case worker to contact me about when and how much to pay.
I said I have used the calculator online to see how much I have to as I pay for my other child direct also and told him the amount but he says it won't go with that it will go with my earnings last year which I don't get because I was phoning to give them my current earnings and to get the amount set on the phone to them.
So what's the point in the online calculator for your current circumstances if they aren't even going to go by that ?
I feel like it's just like dealing with the old csa they always try find ways to screw you over as I was in a better job last year with slightly more pay than I'm earning now but they say they won't change the amount I have to pay unless my earnings are less than 25% which they aren't should it not be going by what I earn just now on weekly basis like it says on the online calculator ?
Thanks again.
Paul