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Hello, I have just finished a long court case for Custody of my child. The final hearing was 2 weeks ago which I won hands down. My son is over the moon as he was suffering so much with his Mum. He is now been placed into my care fultime, He has 1 night a week with his Mum which I also have to take and collect as she has no car which is a 50 mile round trip. I have been paying the agreed amount of CSA over the last 6 months whilst the court case was on as he was living with his Mum at the time.
But over the last 3 weeks he has been living with me and only spend 3 nights with his Mum. The court order starts from 2 weeks ago. He is starting high school this September and the school he is attending have a strict uniform dress code. So far I have spent over 250.00 just on his uniform PE kit etc but still need football boots shoes trainers etc so be looking well over 300.00 when I am finished. All my money has almost gone, I asked if the mother was contributing towards anything but has ignored all my emails. Until yesterday. She ask me for her maintenance Money which was normally due that day. I have had to use what I would normally give her for food clothing and as I said school uniform for my son. I am not sure of the dates I pay if its in advance or from last month but surely morally this is wrong, what can I do. If I have to pay another months CSA we will have nothing left and will struggle for food etc for me and my family yet she has noone to support apart from herself.
I have called the CSA straight after the court case to tell them he is with me but they refused to listen and said they required the court order. As you are aware it can take upto 3 weeks for the order to be drawn and posted, but they would not help me at all.. Surely the mother has to contact them straight away to update them on her claim.
If i refuse to pay her what could happen, any advice would be grateful
First of all, congratulations!
I don't know much about CSA and I'm not sure what would happen if you refused to pay her, but at worst I would think they'd send you a bill which you could pay off at a later date or in instalments if you're struggling. Once the court order has been sent, surely they would backdate your payments to when you had your kids placed into your care, regardless of what date the order was written.
As a last resort, if you're really struggling for food money, most councils have the ability to help you out financially and can even arrange food parcels. It's not something you should be ashamed of as circumstances have changed which are out of your control. It's worth a phone call and the questions they ask for you to qualify usually on last a minute or so. Their priority will be ensuring that there is food on the table for your son. Unfortunately you won't be able to choose which food items you want but they are quite generous. There are also several charities around the country such as P3 or turn2us if the council refuse to help.
You can also arrange to do this through your local CAB office.
Hi there
Well done on your success at court.
The first thing you must do is to contact the child benefit agency and tell them that your child is now living with you. The CSA will look at who is receiving this benefit and will consider this when deciding who is the receiving parent.
The CSA can be pretty pedantic when it comes to changes to a claim, if your ex won't listen you may have to pay her until you can prove that the child is now living with you. You should find out if your payment is in arrears or in advance and then decide what you're going to do. You may be able to get the overpayments back, as long as you have notified them of the change; although you may need to put this in writing.
If you are really struggling, you could go and see your local MP and ask for their help.
All the best
Hi There,
.
I think as said there be be a chance that you will have to pay the amount until CSA have sorted the case, as already said get in touch with child benifits and get that transfered if you haven't already, as that will be the first thing that CSA will check and if when they check it is still in your ex's name then they won't transfer the CSA payment to your advantage.
.
GTTS
I presume you will be putting in a claim with CMS for maintenance from the mother - you are certainly entitled to it.
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