This man drives an Audi TT, has 3 foreign holidays a year, lives in a detached house, receives over £1000 per month for his step-daughter (from her father), he also has regular income and I do not see why I should receive my son’s money at his convenience, as it was his decision to default on his payments.

As my son is over 18 years of age now, I have lost my child benefit and working tax credits so keeping afloat monetary wise is a struggle, and I feel my ex does not have the right to choose how he repays the debt and this decision means there are no consequences to his spiteful behaviour.

I look forward to your response.

Her son decided, of his own choice, to move out of the house and take up residence in our village within a mile of his home whilst finishing his A Levels this year at our local school.

He has a considerable sum in his own bank which my partner had saved for him (circa £5,000).

His Father, who lives in Staffordshire 100′s of miles away appears to be trying to claim maintenance for him via the CSA. We have written detailing the above and advising that the son is not resident with his Father but we are unsure of the guidelines in this case what recourse we have if the CSA continue to chase?

We have our son and he is one year old now and it is a struggle! We could do with that money to survive. What can I do about this?? It’s so unfair and causes a lot of arguments

I sent all the evidence to the CSA who said they couldnt do anything about it as they had to take the figures from the Inland Revenue. They advised me to contact the Tax Fraud Office which I did. I can only assume nothing has been done as my CSA has not been reassessed which it would have been if the Inland Revenue had given the CSA new figures for his income.

Now, today 18 January 2012, I have been told that my ex is moving to India (supposedly for 6 months) but I believe its for good as he has been trying to keep it a secret.

So. I called the CSA who told me to expect him not to pay me!! When I said I couldnt survive without his ittle contribution they said that India is out of their jurisdiction. They gave me the number of REMO. I contacted them who said I can get a Court Order for my child maintenance but only once he’s left the country and they will then send it on the the Indian office. However, with out an address for him, they wont be able to do much.

I have no address for him in the uk let alone India (despite us living in the same town!). He is very secretive, sneaky, cold and calculating.

I feel like nobody wants to help me ensure he continues with his payments.

Can you help me please? He flie 15 February 2012 so I need to act quickly!

But what if you’re your own boss, can you avoid paying that way?

If you’re paid through PAYE under a limited company that you own then, even if you are your own boss, you’ll come under the rules of the DEO as well. A percentage of your money, complete with anything the CSA has added on for arrears, will need to be deducted from your PAYE before you receive any money.

You’re probably thinking about dividends now, aren’t you? This is one of the most popular ways that company directors take money out of their company because of the tax advantages they hold. You will pay less tax by paying yourself in dividends than you would by paying yourself through PAYE. However, as a company director this will still classified as earnings and the CSA can, and will, demand a share of this money also.

So what advantages are there for you to be your own boss? Well, one thing you can do is to reduce your personal outgoings by using them as business expenses. For example, any mileage consumed travelling to meet clients or customers can be offset against your self-assessment. Your mobile phone, which could cost upwards of £50 per month for a Smartphone, can be owned by the business – so you personally don’t need to pay for it. The CSA can’t touch any of that money. There are many other advantages to becoming your own boss and reducing what you have to pay the CSA by reducing what you need to live on, and reducing your visible income.

It just needs a little thought and investigation.

My partner is currently battling with his ex over contact to see his daughter. She got the CSA involved previously [for some unknown reason, even though he was already giving her more than the CSA would claim] and he now makes his monthly payments.

It has been an ongoing action of hers to refuse him to see his daughter for random, unjustified reasons, and simply will not allow him to pick his daughter up for their agreed weekend contact. There has been a phonecall before from the CSA after one of these occurances saying as he wasnt having his daughter that weekend, he would have to pay his ex more money, even though it was not his choice to cease contact.

It has now hit rock bottom and contact has ceased completely through her dictation, mediation has been held and unsuccessful, I am just concerned she will start demanding more money through the CSA because he is not seeing his daughter [even though she will not let him, as apposed to he refuses to]

can anyone give me any advice on if we have a leg to stand on regarding not having to pay extra just because she says so?

salt in the wound – there has been a pattern to her refusing contact and therefore claiming more money – for example paying for her and her boyf to go on holiday, needing money to go on a boozy weekend away and shopping for new shoes on boxing day……..desperately need to know where we stand so we can fight the CSA and their unfairness

When speaking to them (the csa ) they say its cause my wage as increased so i can afford to pay more the only reason my wage as gone up is because ive been doing overtime so i can live. They should leave overtime alone and just stick to basic wages and all this is for just one child and at the end of the day im only a wagon driver.

There so called personal allowances are a joke they give £115.00 for housing my rent alone is that then £67.50 personal allowance ive been told off the csa that this is for gas,elec,water,tv, then theres £ 77.97 food, running of my car witch i need to get to work and for me so they say £260.47 a week is all i need to live on well it cost me £867.56 a month to run my house all in so that leave me £174.32 and break that down to weekly witch is how im paid its nothing and they talk to you like crap .

He works full time but also has a house to keep and debt from a previous marriage but they do not take this in to account, he is going to lose his house due to this as he cannot afford to keep a roof over his head with the payments they are taking from him. He has seeked advice from Solicitors etc but this is also costing him a fortune and he just cannot afford to keep paying it.

If anyone could give me some advice on what he could possibly do to bring these payments down I would greatly appreciate it, [he is more than willing to pay for his daughter but it was a mutual agreement in the past to provide for her when she needed something. Thanks

These payments have just stopped been paid.

But i know he is working 5 days a week for a fencing firm and he is still unwilling to pay anything. I think this is very unfair as i am working myself to support the children and money is very tight. I wont to know what is the next step to getting him to pay for his responsibilities. Please can you help

Apparently she can do this because of a loophole, because she is in receipt of the child benefit payments. In hindsight i was too generous, and because my ex-wife does not work (a lifestyle decision on her part) I let her have the child benefit, as i work full time.

Technically I have my daughter 51% of the time, as I take her for a 2 week summer holiday each year. My ex-wife does not take her on any holidays, expecting me to do all of this. I should also add that my ex-wife is presently being investigated for benefit fraud, but again the CSA are not interested in this either.