[Solved] CSA - Pension

Ive moved your topic into this section and will ask Child Maintenance Options to come along and respond.

Hi penha9021

Thank you for your post. I am William, the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I am unable to comment on your ex-wife's Child Support Agency (CSA) application as we are a separate organisation. However, I can provide you with some general information about statutory child maintenance that may help answer your query.

The CSA works out child maintenance using the paying parent's income, which includes earnings, money from an occupational or personal pension and tax credits. They use the amount of income left after deductions such as Income Tax, National Insurance and any money paid into a personal pension scheme. The CSA take other factors into account, such as the number of other children living with the paying parent. For further guidance on how the CSA works out child maintenance, you may wish to visit Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out/how-the-child-support-agency-works-out-child-maintenance. You may also wish to speak to the CSA directly. You can find the contact details for the office that is dealing with your case on Gov.uk at http://www.gov./child-support-agency, or on any letters that you have received from the CSA.

In terms of an alternative agreement to the CSA, you may wish to consider trying to set up a family-based arrangement with your ex-wife. With this type of agreement, there are no strict rules to stick to. Therefore, both you and your ex-wife have the flexibility to decide what you will include in your child maintenance calculations.

A family-based arrangement is simply an agreement between you and your ex-wife and is about how your child will be provided for. Your arrangement does not need to be all about money, although many parents do include regular financial contributions. It can include other kinds of support, such as you directly paying for things that your child may need. A family-based arrangement is not legally-binding, however many parents prefer this type of arrangement because it is very flexible and can easily be reviewed, if you and your circumstances change. If you think that you can set up a family-based arrangement, as the person who made the original application, your ex-wife can contact the CSA and cancel the arrangement at any time.

We have a range of tools, forms and guides that can help you set up a family-based arrangement. One such tool is our online calculator. This will give you an indication of how much child maintenance will be payable if the services of the CSA are used. You can use the figure quoted in your negotiations to make a family-based arrangement. We also have a family-based arrangement for that both of you can use to help formalise your arrangement. However, the form is not legally-binding. You can gain access to all our tools and guides by visiting our website at http://www.cmoptions.org/en/toolbox/leaflets.asp.

For more information about family-based arrangements, please visit our website at http://www.cmoptions.org. Alternatively, you can call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on a Saturday. We also 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: http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.