[Solved] help with csa

If you are getting child benefit, then you should be able to claim from your ex for child maintenance, and she will also be able to claim against you for your other child. Under CMS, if the residency is split equally (ie you have equal time), then I don't think maintenance is payable.

Hi StevieD

Thank you for your post. I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I will provide some information that will help answer your query.

Under the statutory rules, child maintenance is paid to the parent that is in receipt of the Child Benefit for a child that maintenance is to be paid for. You may also wish to know that the Child Support Agency (CSA) are no longer accepting new child maintenance applications. These are now being managed by the Child Maintenance Service.

The Child Maintenance Service is only one way of putting an agreement in place. So that you are aware of your options before making a decision about child maintenance, you may wish to view the following information that I have provided for you below.

Many parents choose to sort out child maintenance between themselves in the form of a family-based arrangement as it is often the most flexible and amicable way of agreeing and maintaining an arrangement. There are also no strict rules to stick to.

A family-based arrangements can include both money and other kinds of support, such as the paying parent directly paying for things that a child may need or them contributing towards the receiving parent’s household bills. Although family-based arrangements are not legally-binding, many parents prefer them because of their flexibility and how easy they can be reviewed, such as if you or your ex-partner’s circumstances change. They are also free to set up and maintain. You can find more information on family-based arrangements on our website at http://www.cmoptions.org/en/family/index.asp.

We have a range of tools and guides on our website that may help you set up a family-based arrangement. These include our discussion guide which you can use to plan your conversations around child maintenance. We also have a family-based arrangement form that is not a legally-binding document but if used to write down what both of you have agreed, it can help to formalise your arrangement.

To give you an indication of how much child maintenance that may be calculated if you were to use the Child Maintenance Service, we have an online calculator on our website at http://www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator/. Some parents use the figure provided as a starting point to negotiate a family-based arrangement.

If you feel that you are unable to set up a family-based arrangement with your ex-partner, you can make an application to the Child Maintenance Service. To do this as the receiving parent, you will need to be in receipt of the Child Benefit for the child that lives with you.

The Child Maintenance Service takes shared care into account in different ways depending on the paying parent’s child maintenance rate. Shared care applies if the paying parent provides overnight care for at least 52 nights per year before a liability will be reduced. This is based on the agreement with the receiving parent and or evidence.

If the paying parent can prove that they carry out an equal amount of day-to-day care as well as having equal shared care then the Child Maintenance Service regards neither parent to be the paying parent so their child maintenance would be set as nil, even if one parent receives the Child Benefit for a child that maintenance is being paid for. You can find more information on how the Child Maintenance Service works out child maintenance on Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out/how-the-child-maintenance-service-works-out-child-maintenance.

The Child Maintenance Service use two schemes: Direct Pay and Collect and Pay. Both schemes are legally-binding and enforceable.

Direct Pay is where the Child Maintenance Service will provide both you and your ex-partner with a child maintenance calculation and then allow both of you to decide the payment method. After this, the Child Maintenance Service will make no further contact unless they are informed that payments have stopped or if there is a change in either of your circumstances.

Alternatively, under the Collect and Pay scheme, the Child Maintenance Service will calculate and collect payments from your ex-partner and then forward them on to you. If you decide to use the Child Maintenance Service, your ex-partner’s responsibility to pay will be around the point when she is contacted by the Child Maintenance Service.

You may be interested to know that the Government plans to introduce charges for using the Child Maintenance Service at some point in 2014. There will be three types of charges:

• Application fees
• Fees for collecting and paying out child maintenance
• Enforcement charges for paying parents who do not pay

The best way to avoid charges is to set up a family-based arrangement and not use the Child Maintenance Service at all. However, if you and the other parent cannot agree an arrangement between yourselves, there will be no collection fees for parents who pay and receive child maintenance using Direct Pay, only application fees.

For parents using the Collect and Pay scheme the Government plans to charge collection fees to both the paying and receiving parent, this is for collecting and passing on child maintenance payments.

Under the Government’s plans, the paying parent would have to pay 20% in addition to the weekly maintenance payment and the receiving parent would have 4% taken away from the weekly maintenance payment. For further information you may wish to speak to the Child Maintenance Service directly.

If you decide to make an application to the Child Maintenance Service, you will need to contact us at Child Maintenance Options first either by telephone or email, for your unique reference number. This number is personal to you. It is unique and shows that you have spoken to Child Maintenance Options before applying for a statutory child maintenance arrangement.

If you feel that none of the above options will work for you, you could consider a Consent Order, or a Minute of Agreement if you live in Scotland. Both of these options are official rulings made by a court. To arrange a Consent Order or a Minute of Agreement, both you and your ex-partner will need to agree how much child maintenance will be paid and how often before going to court. This type of agreement is usually set up when both parents are going to court for other reasons, such as arranging a divorce or dividing assets. Arranging a Consent Order can be costly as fees for solicitors, mediators and court costs may apply.

For more information on the ways to set up child maintenance, 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 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 I wonder if anyone has any help I pay csa always have but very nightmare relationship with ex always tried to make it difficult to see my child and make my life [censored] , I have had another child and happily married my little boy is autistic and receive dla my wife has reduced her hours to support us and my little boy someone has told me I can speak to child maintenance about my payments as my little boy has a disability there are thing we want to look at like private peach and language but can’t  currently afford can anyone advise on special expenses request with child maintenance thanks 

@dad1004 hi, yes you can log into your CMS account and put in a claim for special expense.