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Hi, this is my first post after a bit of reading through the forums!
I'm looking for a bit of advice. Basically, my son lives with me from Sunday mornings till Wednesday lunchtime which is 3.5 days and so half the week. But as he only sleeps at my house 3 nights a week the CSA say I have to pay her! Now this isn't all about the money. I would love nothing note than to have my son for the forth night every 2 weeks for a proper 50\50 split but his mum is having none of it and I cannot afford to take her to court about it.
Now the amount I have to pay her might not seem a lot but its still a financial strain as I am on low income and pay to look after him for the 3.5 days he's in my care! I also buy his school shoes and other school items that his mum doesn't so its not like I don't take care of my son!
I have spoken to the CSA about it and they are not interested as she still has our son for the extra night and that's all that matters according to them.
Is there anything I can do about it? Like I said, my preferred option is a full 50\50 split of time with my son but without stumbling across a treasure chest there is no way I could afford a solicitor to take her to court and I wouldn't know where to start doing it myself.
Thanks yo anyone who reads this and has any advice for me.
JimTwig
Hi there,
As I understand it if you are on the CSA rules then even if you managed to get 50/50 shared car then you would still have to pay your ex something, it would be a reduction of 50% as he stays with you 50% of the time but you would still have to pay.
This isn't a fair rule by any means but unfortunately this is how they work it out.
If you really needed to attend court you could represent yourself it isn't as hard as you would think and we can assist throughout with advice and support however I would say try and attend mediation first before you even applied to court as there is a rule in place now that states mediation should be attended before a judge can make any order.
GTTS
Hello Jim Twig
When the Child Support Agency (CSA) calculate an amount, they take into account how many overnight stays the child has with the paying parent. If the child stays overnight with the paying parent on average at least one night a week (at least 52 nights a year), they call this ‘shared care’. In these cases, they can reduce the amount of child maintenance that the paying parent has to pay, to work out the weekly amount due. Where parents share the care of their children, they work out a daily amount of child maintenance (usually 1/7 of the weekly amount the paying parent must pay). You can find detailed information about how the CSA work out maintenance payments here https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/319134/how-is-child-maintenance-worked-out.pdf.
If you wish to speak directly to the CSA about this matter, you can find their contact details here https://www2.dwp.gov.uk/csa/v2/en/contact/index.asp, or on any correspondence they have sent to you.
The CSA are just one way to arrange maintenance payments, if you would like information on the other options available, you can contact Child Maintenance Options, http://cmoptions.org.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have a web application, ‘Sorting out separation’. It aims to make it much easier for separating and separated parents (and childless couples) to find the support they need, when and where they need it, and encourages them to collaborate on a range of issues. The link is http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.
Regards
William
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