Please advise me on appealing against the CSA

67 thoughts on “Please advise me on appealing against the CSA”

1. Jay & Allan and anyone else who cant see what it is that I am clearly stating..My comments are about NRP who choose deliberately and consistently to hide their real income from the CSA and have made NO attempt or misleading inconsistent financial contributions to the PWC arranged outside of the CSA. Ie the ones that CAN PAY BUT WONT PAY TO THE CSA OR DIRECT TO THE PWC they do ANYTHING to avoid this responsibility including the ever popular self employed route.What specifically is it about these people doing this that you think is Right Jay??? Man if you try to defend these people you are one of them!Why don't you have her arrested for taking your child abroad (Northern Ireland!) ? Is it a criminal offence to take a child to Northern Ireland? do you know ?? As stated I speak out against NRP who DO NOT AND WILL NOT PAY A DECENT AND REASONABLE LEVEL OF FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO THEIR CHILDREN MAKING EVERY EFFORT TO AVOID THE CSA BUT ARE HAPPY TO LIVE A GREAT LIFESTYLE AND WATCH THEIR KIDS GO WITH NOTHING JUST TO SPITE THEIR X PARTNER.These people …know who they are..and usually there is a link to the reason they are a NRP in the first place! I have spent several years helping my partner to get something from her x who did the self employed job and did everything to avoid paying ANYTHING for his 2 kids. Yes the CSA are not perfect but they get money from these losers but they are as good as the person's who speak to them..we have our NRP cornered now and I will not stop until he pays for HIS CHILDREN. He unlike you has contact in fact we encourage contact but he has less interest than he makes out.In Summary – these NRP described above are a waste of space.

2. That's what I was trying to get at too Rob, when jay was talking about contributing financially to uni, car, house etc..if an NRP isn't going to pay any maintenance, either privately or through the CSA, then they won't be providing for anything else will they?

3. Hi guys i tried complaining and because my ex was self employed last year and now on benefits, they weren’t interested! They told me i should have appealed against the calculation last year within 1 month and now he’s on benefit there is nothing they can do. He would have had to submit copies of trading accounts and his last tax return, all of which i know he doesn’t have! The csa presume that everyone they deal with pays tax and dont bother checking with HMRC. Any advice would be great thanks

4. Rob that sounds frustrating .. but tell me this then , you two are together now and im assuming you both look after the kids…SO :: im summary you have 2 incomes, and now want 15% of his ontop?Whereas in the same scenario if he gets a new partner, his new family must now be deprived of 15% of their combined income to top up you're two incomes?How is that right? Surely anyone reasonable would say .. Right .. we have 2 incomes, you dont wanna pay for or see the kids? NAFF OFF! why should payments continue to be FORCED (thats the operative word here) so one family gets 215% income and one gets 185% ??

5. Good point Jay, and I have been there on both sides so I can totally understand that.As an NRPP (non resident parents partner) I went through a lot of frustration seeing my own salary taken into the assessment, and my own children's maintenance put into the pot as well! then husbands ex got married and was receiving his salary as well, so she was far better off than me..and she didn't work! highly frustrating :-(However, as my husband is also a PWCP (parent with care's partner) he also found he was paying in the family budget and financially raising his stepchildren, so there was frustration there too. Of course it is natural that you provide for children living with you regardless of biology.However I have always found it difficult to understand why ANY parent wouldn't provide a certain amount of money towards their offsprings upkeep..

6. I resent the suggestion that in expecting a reasonable sum of maintenance from my sons father I am sitting on my arse and waiting for a handout either from my ex partner or the state. I've moved out of the city I love and bought an ex-council house in a rural area where I have a hope of providing my son with a modest but reasonable lifestyle. From the income I receive the vast proportion goes into making sure we have a roof over our head, gas, electricity, water and oil, transport to get to school, and food on the table. With no support from the father who incidentally has had regular contact since birth, there is understandably very little money left for luxuries or indeed new clothes for either me or my son. My ex lives in a gated doclklands apartment and keeps two top of the range cars on the road and yet he doesn't even provide enough in a year to buy new a set of new tyres for the 15-year old car his son is transported in 80% of the time. Do you really want to stand up for his rights in withholding maintenance on the off-chance I might be a money grabbing gold digger?Realistically statistics prove that he is unlikely to have his bank account frozen or his assets seized so he goes on flaunting his wealth in the knowledge that the CSA are just going through the motions. Why play hardball when you can find plenty of compliant 'victims' amongst the willing and honest NRP's?

7. Like you Lorraine, I too can see this from more than one point of view. The fact that so many people today are forming relationships with partners who already have children from former relationships means that its all toocomon to experience this from both sides. My current partner has negotiated generous but sometimes crippling voluntary maintenance contributions with his ex-wife in line with the current CSA guidelines. In order to do this and also maintain mortgage payments on a modest home big enough to accommodate the kids when they stay over he has to work his bollocks off and will probably be doing so long after retirement age. His ex has a new partner and with his and her combined income and assets she appears to be enjoying a lifestyle far more lavish than my partner could ever hope for. It's difficult but as far as he sees it he entered into the contract of parenthood with the understanding that he would be a 'father' to those kids whatever the circumstances and that includes making sacrifices to ensure their financial welfare. How galling do you think it must be for him to see my self-employed ex picking up his son in either a BMW or a Porsche Carrerra with the knowledge that he is claiming a self employed income of less than £50 a week. Should we choose to move in together then he will inevitably be contributing to the upbringing of this mans child. We're in a lose/lose situation! I'm not looking for a slice of his my ex's success. I just want a 'reasonable' contribution in line with the one I am making as 50% of the partnership which chose to bring our beautiful son into the world.

8. Jay. I accept your apology. The issue of contact is a very emotive one and I think it's appalling that responsible parents are being denied access to their kids because of bitterness and resentment between partners. It's not fair on the children apart from anything else. Just because I am arguing from the other side of the coin doesn't automatically mean that I condone what your ex is doing. Every case is different but we mustn't get lost in the detail and start taking out our angst on eathother. There are bigger fish to fry!

9. The truth is NONE of this is right. We are all complaining about the shortcomings of the same system which is failing us ALL in different ways. We're all getting distracted into fighting amongst ourselves when we should be joining forces and tackling the CSA for what it is … a woefully inadequate government agency which is squeezing the life out of those foolish enough to believe the CSA will put our kids needs first. There is enough anger amongst us to bring all these matters to the fore and really present a thorn in the side of current legislation. Lets not fall into the trap of apportioning blame on either NRP's or PWC when we each have individual cases which are full of personal emotion and unhealed wounds….

10. You seem nice, friend request sent x

11. My ex is in Malta at the moment, husbands ex has just come back from Spain. Marvellous..and it isn't as if we don't earn money to go on holidays, we are just being shafted from both sides.It's pants.

12. Pants indeed! My ex has somehow managed to pay for a week in America and my partners ex has just taken the kids to Disneyland. We had a week in Littlehampton and are both feeling now the pinch!Did you say that your income is being taken into account in your husbands ex's claim? I thought that was all out of bounds as far as the ex-partner is concerned?

13. It stinks doesn't it Katy?Yes, my income is taken into the assessment under the old rules system. Ditto the maintenance received for my children from my previous marriage. I the maintenance was through the CSA then they would leave it out of the assessment, but as it's a private arrangement they don't accept is at child support.Wonderful eh? plus the fact that the child tax credit is also included (all £10 per week) although the ex's child tax credit (around £100 per week) isn't included as income!

14. God that is SO unfair! You're absolutely right about the one-size-fits-all policy. By old system does that mean that it's no longer the case and you're in that situation because your case pre-dates new legislation?

15. Yep that's exactly right Katy..husbands case never migrated to CS2, so he is still on old rules. If ex wife had claimed CSA from her newest ex husband then my husband would go onto CS2, but she won't..I wonder why???!!!

16. Crikey thats a real bummer. It's so hard not to be resentful about that sort of thing. No wonder there are kids living with bitterness and anger. The CSA's outdated rules are just perpetuating the misery.

17. I have managed to bring the CSA's attention to my PWC in so as to ask my PWC if she wishes to close her case. The fact that I have shared care and prefer to provide for him while he is with me, I only hope that my PWC has the decency to consider our child in respect to that he is financially supported while with me every weekend and through the holidays as my PWC has 2 working incomes, WFTC'c and Child credits… It is I the NRP who constantly contacts the CSA and comment as to how their actions have caused 70 deaths causing several children to miss out on CSA payments and to lose a parent because of the CSA. I ask how this is supportive to the children, even if I am diverting from the issues involved in my case to which I then comment this CSA system affects every child no matter the cases individual assessments, PWC's who are well off can afford not to recieve payments from NRP's with lower incomes due to PWC's addition partners income or state help..eg.WFTC and child credits. Well off NRP's can provide for PWC's support to child by providing equal support by negotiations and provide items (if it is a matter of finance, as it is usually)that the PWC and PWC's partner was unable to afford rather than PWC obtaining finances to support theirs and their partners lavish style of living at NRP's expense. However! it appears that it is usual that NRP's & PWC's remain in conflict and the only battle tool is financial and therefore the inclusion of CSA…If only the PWC's & NRP's could find a way to resolve their conflicts, by negotiation and provide equal support to the child emotionally, finance could well be considered as a reasonable offer by negotiation by understanding of finance issues between the two rather than using the child for financial gain at the NRP's or NRP plus NRPP's expense. It should all be on equall terms for the childs sake rather than PWC stating, "well you still have to give me money even if I do have more than you" which appears to be the current trend and then involving CSA demands… If all PWC's and NRP's could find an understanding instead of desire for financial greed…. there would be no need for CSA..