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CSA advice forum » Child Support Agency

1. Angeldust
   Member
   
   

   My partner has one daughter which he was paying £5 per week which was taken directly from his JSA payments. He now lives with me and my 2 daughters and we have one child due next Feb. He started a new job in June 2010 and we have been putting aside £25 per week as when he phoned the CSA to tell them he had started work, they werent interested until he had 2 wage slips to prove income. He wanted to phone them and be honest so that we didnt have huge arrears in the future which might happen if we kept quiet.

   We were quoted the £25 on the online csa calculator, which asked how many children we had and how much he earned , he is not on a huge wage, £12000 per year. After a phone call today he was told that he would possibly be expected to pay 20% of his wages, well we made that to be about £40 per week which we cannot afford at the moment. They didn mention arrears from when he was on JSA, which we cant understand as he paid the £5 every week, surely they are not going to backdate this £40 payment to the months he was on JSA, how can we afford that, unless we misunderstood...we just presumed that the higher rate of payments would start from when he began work. We have £250 put by for the arrears but thats all!
   The online calculator said that they wouldnt put my children in financial hardship but it looks like they will be! If these payments are going to be ridiculaous then my partner may have to give up work or we cant pay our rent. All this is just what we were told on the phone, they are writing to us with a proper calculation and amount of arrears but i am dreading it.

   Posted 1 year ago #

2. Indeego
   Member
   
   

   You may or may not have had your proper calculation but based on what you have said the situation may not be as dour as you may think.
   The basic rules for calculation are based on the number of children involved which in this case is 1, so they will take only 15% of net income, BUT there are currently 2 and as of February will be 3 other children in your household, that means that currently the first 20% of net income will not be considered, rising to 25% when the third child arrives. What this means based on £12k a year which is about £230 a week gross, and based on an average of 25% of that going to income tax and NI there will be about £173 per week net income, currently of which 20% should not be included which leaves £138 for calculating, and at 15% for the one child is £20.70 a week. (Please note these are theoretical figures based on general tax info for demonstration).
   All these calculations should be provided to demonstrate how the figure is obtained.
   As for back pay, if the minimum amount of £5 was being taken from JSA every week I do not see what arrears there could be, they can't claim £40 week back pay when earning only JSA at the time.
   It sounds like your partner has been honest throughout and you have been sensible with putting aside some money, so I do hope you are now all sorted and/or this is of some sense and support so best of luck.

   Posted 1 year ago #

3. Nicolai
   Member
   
   

   Just to add to the good advice from Indeego, as your partner is on a low wage, your maintenance payments will not be worked out on the basic 15%, 20%, 25% system. They will used what is called a reduced rate calculator. They do not disclose this as it is much more complicated and only confuses matters, but it will mean you will probably pay less that £20 per week.

   They will back date this to when your partner informed them he had started work, so you have done well to put away the money, because they will ask for it! It will not go back to the time he was on JSA.

   Good luck!

   Posted 1 year ago #

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