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I have searched the internet for the answer to this question without success.
I have two children with my ex, one of which is 17 years old. I have just found out that my 17 year old moved out of my ex’s address in August of 2012. Two weeks ago I contacted the CSA who then investigated the matter.
Credit to them, a week later they recontacted me and confirmed that my eldest lad had moved out over a year ago, and at that point he should have been removed from the assessment, and my payments should have been reduced.
The CSA told me that my ex had never informed them that he had moved out, assuming that Child Benefit would have informed them?! It is clear that my ex chose not to inform the CSA and allowed the over-payments to continue.
I have effectively been paying (approximately) £100 too much for the last 13 months.
The CSA have agreed that I will be reassessed and from now on my payments will be reduced, but my next payment is due to be taken on Tuesday and the CSA have advised me to let another over payment go through.
I pay by standing order to the CSA every month, and therefore I have full control over how much gets paid.
I have two questions: -
1) Should I allow another over-payment to go through, or reduce my standing order by £100 and make the additional payment if required?
2) How do I claim the over-payment back, and is there any CSA regulation governing this?
Thanks in advance for your help.
I would be very inclined to ring the CSA on Monday and say (politely) that unless there is a good reason otherwise, you are reducing your payments immediately- they should at least tell you why you should let another payment go through. As for back payments, the CSA only change the payments from the date they are advised there is a change in circumstances, so I don't think they are in the wrong on this occasion. Your ex is supposed to inform them of a change in circumstances, and I think there is a potential £1000 fine for failing to do so (I don't know how often this has been applied, if ever) and it's also possible that your ex has been claiming child benefit, which is fraudulent.
So, I don't think you can claim the money back from the CSA unless they are able to chase your ex for it (I don't think they'd spend the time doing it to be honest, but you can ask them) - which leaves the possibility of reporting your ex for benefit fraud and trying to go against your ex through the small claims court.
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