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Hello everyone, My name is Diane and i am abit stressed and hoping someone can help me. !! I have a partner of 16yrs and we have 2 children. Yesterday when i came home i opened the mail as normal to find a letter from the csa telling him that his payments for a little girl would stop soon. It gave the girls name and date of birth. As you can imagine i was gobsmacked so i rang his sister who went very quiet and then said i am sorry but he had a one night stand 10yrs ago and she fell pregnant. As you can imagine i am gutted. But to get to the pont he is saying that the woman he slept with said it wasnt his and he isnt on the birth certificate and he has never done a dna.? So what i want to know is, Does anyone know if 10yrs ago the csa bothered to get prove or did they just take the mothers word for it that it was joe bloggs.?? Is he lying.?? Thankyou.
1
In simple terms, if he ever had any doubts he was the father, he should have told the CSA at the time. They would arrange DNA testing. If they asked for DNA and the mother refused, CSA would assume he was NOT the dad. If they asked and he refused, they would assume that he IS the dad.
If both agreed, he would only be responsible if it was proved he was the father.
Hello Diane
From what you have written it sounds like a very shocking and upsetting time for you at the moment. I hope you find the information I have provided below around child maintenance when there is a disagreement over parentage helpful.
If the person named on an application to the Government’s statutory maintenance service suspects he may not be the child’s father, he would need to notify them of this. They would then ask for evidence proving this. If he does not have sufficient evidence, they can ask both parents to take a DNA test or ask the courts to make a decision regarding parentage. You can find out more about what happens when someone denies they are the parent of a child and DNA testing on the Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance/disagreements-about-parentage and https://www.gov.uk/dna-testing-parentage-disagreements
You mentioned that your partner’s name is not on the child’s birth certificate. In the eyes of the law, not being on a birth certificate does not change the fact that the paying parent (the parent who does not usually provide the day-to-day care of the child) has a legal responsibility to financially support their child.
For more information on all the different ways to set up child maintenance and for a more personalised service, 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
Thankyou very much william for your kind reply it has been very helpful. It seems we have alot of talking to do. x
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