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Hi
I'm after some help please.
I have 12 year old twins from a previous relationship which I have always paid for via the CSA (£330 per month). I am married with 2 more children. Last year my wife and I split and I agreed to pay her £420 per month as a private agreement for my other 2 children. 6 months after splitting with her I informed the CSA of my new circumstances - they opened a case and said it would be reviewed. After a few letters to and fro between us they have now come back to me and increased my maintinance to the twins to £532 per month plus arrears of £316 per month, totalling £850!. They say that as the arrangement with my wide is an 'unofficial' one in their eyes it doesn't exist. So they have worked out the twins money as if I do not have any other children and have backdated it to the date that my wife and I split (this is the arrears portion). I called the CSA to explain that I cant afford to pay this amount of money and asked if I can get my wife to confirm (plus show bank statements) that I have indeed had a private agreement with her for a year will they reconsider. I got a very definite no. So, I need to get my wife to put a claim in with the CSA so that they can then recalculate both sets of maintinance (which will take a few months but I have accepted this is the only way forward). My big issue at the moment is the 'backpay' - will the CSA take into account that I have in fact been paying for all 4 of my children at the agreed rate all year if I get my wife to confirm this and we provide evidence via bank statements will they recalculate? Or will it just be a case of 'tough'?? Is it worth me opening an appeal case for them to look at this? just seems very unfair a
Thanks for anyone who can help
Which scheme are you on? Did you start paying maintenance for the twins before or after December 2003? If it was after then you are on CSA2 and they do not take a family based arrangement into account in their calculations.... I took the following paragraph from their leaflet on how they calculate maintenance.....
What happens if the non-resident parent has to pay child maintenance to more than one parent with care?
If you are a non-resident parent and you are paying child maintenance to more than one parent with care through us, we work out the total amount of child maintenance you have to pay through us. We divide this total so that you pay the same amount for each child. You can pay the total amount through us, and we then pass on the right amount to each parent with care, or you can pay each parent with care direct.
Sometimes, a non-resident parent may pay child maintenance to one or more parents with care through us, and also to one or more parents with care through family-based arrangements (known as family arrangement in this leaflet). In this situation, we can’t take into account the amount you are paying through family arrangements when we work out how much child maintenance you have to pay through us. But if you have a court order covering child maintenance, we can take this into account.
...My feeling is that you should open a new case for your two younger children, this will come under the new scheme with the new CMS and they should then move all 4 children over to the new scheme and recalculate. Under this scheme they do take into account any family based arrangements. Once it had been sorted there's nothing to stop you and your ex closing the case for your two younger children and going back to a family based arrangement if that's what you would prefer.
I'm not an expert, so give Child Maintenance Options a call for further advice about opening a new case and getting all the children moved over into it.
Good luck