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Hi All,
Firstly I have to confess I am a woman but I am writing this on behalf of my partner who is in pieces due to the situation involving his 17yr old son & his ex. I hope you don't mind me requesting some help on here on his behalf, but we are desperately trying to get some sense out of the mad world of CSA and favouring Mums!
Brief summary of situation.....they split up 7yrs ago and they took an informal agreement that my partner would have 50/50 access to his son & he lent her money to set up home. This quickly became more 60/40 with us as the Mum had another child and due to various lifestyle choices could not cope. We paid for all clothes, school stuff etc but didn't complain as we were happy to see more of his son. As time went on and school work became more important we suggested we have him full time throughout the week as we were better equipped to help him at school, however this was refused. Time has gone on and the last 4 weeks he's not seen us at all, during various discussion it's been discovered that due to her splitting with her other childs father and having to move house she has 'persuaded' my partners son to stay with her 100% so she can get a 3 bed house and claim CSA. During this time he has not attended school, been kicked off a course and started smoking!
Anyway an application for CSA has come through and we are not happy. We wanted to see him more and have for the last 6/7 years been having 50/50 shared care. We don't believe he should be with his mother at all (she drinks, doesn't work, history of depression)& have proof that it's not in his interest. Why should we then pay for him to live there??
HELP! And thank you for listening/reading...... :huh:
Hi and welcome.
Ultimately, your partners ex knows what she is doing, as she is getting the maximum CSA this way (and probably getting from her other childs father as well). By refusing overnight stays, she is making sure there is no reduction in the maintenance, so she will get 12% of your partner's gross pay, until she stops claiming child benefit, or the lad reaches 20 if he is still in non advanced education. You could try to get a letter from the college to ask for proof that he is no longer in education, and see if the Benefits Agency will accept this as proof that child benefit should be stopped.
Your partners son is old enough to make his own decision as to where he wants to live - is there a chance that he would rather live with you? That way, you wouldn't be paying maintenance (though of course, you would be paying to keep him, but that has the advantage that you know the money is for his benefit, plus you see him all of the time) and his ex would have to pay your partner maintenance (in reality, that's probably going to be Β£7 per week straight out of her benefits).
Hi
Not sure if I am any help but as actd has said they will take 12% of your partners Gross salary but will take into consideration if he has a Pension that he pays into (the more Pension he pays the less the ex gets) they have a link to HMRC so they can calculate it off the last P60 that was issued but they will give you an estimate before a case is opened up.
My only advice is talk to Child Maintenance Services,my opinion is that they were brilliant and so helpful with my case.
this sounds like the same but I have one child and she as one child I work 40+ hours a work were she works 16 a work to get the maximum in tax credits were I receive none
so in short she gets 12% of my earning to be told by the CSA I can claim 12% of her earning
58 quid a week to get 12 quid a week off her
a single working father kicked again
THANKS CSA :boohoo:
Thank you for your help and sorry for delay in replying! That is a good idea actd about contacting the college, and I think we may request a letter from them showing he is not attending and therefore not in full time education.
That is also good news about the pension Lewy77, my partner does pay into a pension I believe so this would hopefully work in our favour.
We would like my partners son to live with us all the time and a few years ago he would have jumped at the chance, however now he is 17 and 'exploring' life he does not want to live with us all the time - we make him go to college, try to get him a job, do things as a family etc, whereas his Mum takes him to parties,lets him smoke & drink and doesn't seem to notice if he doesn't go to college! Of course he is going to choose the latter! In hindsight we should have fought for full custody years ago but didn't want to be so cruel to my partners ex or son, but now it is coming back to bite us!
I think we will talk to the Child Maintenance Services and the CAB and see if it can be resolved.
The help is appreciated and makes us, especially my partner, feel like he's not alone! π
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