to be astounded that the CSA are going to take a cut of maintenance payments?

[Inertia]

Link here : m.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/13/fees-child-maintenance-intervention?cat=society&type=article

How on earth can the government justify this ?

On page 21, point 24 it says "We will ensure affordability and do not intend to recover the full application charge, which is on average £200."

Am I reading the wrong document?

hissymissy no they don't do that anymore. Maintenance payments have no effect on benefits. But they do on Legal aid LOL

I don't think I'm going to bother applying for it TBH. Ex is out of work and has a new baby with his gf, plus her DD (not his) lives with them - if he's not responsible for her now I assume he will be if they get married as planned next year. I've been told that the maximum I will get is £5 a week anyway - taking the two children into account CMO have told me it's quite possible it will come back as a nil assessment. Am I supposed to pay £50 a year for this too? And that doesn't take into account the hassle for me constantly checking up on them, and the fact it's likely to annoy XP and cause bad feeling. It's not worth it. He can keep his less than £5 a week, we don't need it.

Lego can you post a link to the doc you're reading? I think I'm looking at an older version.

You said:
"The recent Welfare Reform Bill also includes measures to prevent single parents from using the CSA unless they can show they have taken steps to negotiate a private arrangement with their ex partner."

I no longer know where my ex lives and he's changed his phone number, so how am I supposed to "take steps to negotiate a private arrangement"?

"And the bill says parents will only be able to use the state scheme to collect child maintenance for them if their ex-partner agrees or if the state thinks that he or she won?t pay voluntarily."
Yes, it looks like it will be our word against theirs. Splendid. However, after 3 years of non-compliance, I'm sure 'the state' would agree my ex won't pay voluntarily.

Now I'm really going to bed. Not only am I tired but am now totally wound up.

no, you are not reading the wrong document. there seem to be few at least. I got the £200 from the "impact assessment document for the document"!. Why say £200 if they don't mean it?? more lies?

legstuckinmyhoover

I'm near close to an ambulance as it is right now but jesus.

So what happens when my lazy sneaky ex comes off benefits at the moment?

1. my payments stop, I wait a couple of weeks and I phone THEM to check.

1. He's got a job, whoop. They take two weeks to see if he will pay until I phone THEM to ask whats going on.
2. Add two weeks to send him a letter asking him to pay and giving him two more weeks to respond.

1. He doesn't respond, I phone them AGAIN and they send him yet another letter threatening a deductions from earnings order.

1. He doesn't respond. Cue my phonecall, time lapse to order (weeks and weeks). And at the end of the following month I get a payment.

1. Its looks too low and I phone them to check. True enough payroll have either been incredibly stupid or underhanded and it gets sorted.

1. The following month no money as payroll take too long to pay. Oh dear, seems they lost the paperwork. (5 or 6 more phonecalls from me that month)

1. He leaves his job and goes straight on JSA, money gets added to arrears.

Soooo what they are telling me now then is, before I go through all that rubbish I have to go through the courts first? Fantastic. At least witht he CSA I don't have to see or speak to him to add to the stress.How is this solving the conflict? Grrrrr

softkitty point 24 says the full application charge is around £200, point 25 then goes on to state that charges they will impose to offset some of the application charge :

"We are still considering the level of charges but are looking at the following range to
balance fairness to individuals with value for money for the taxpayer:

 An upfront application charge of around £100.
 A total application charge for parents on benefits in the range of £50 with £20 of this
paid upfront and the remainder paid in instalments. The instalments for the
application only become payable where maintenance is in payment. Therefore a
parent on benefit who applies will never pay more than the upfront charge if no
maintenance is received from the application.

 A charge of £20?£25 for the calculation only service. "

And for those who are wonder, at the bottom of page 7 is a diagram showing how they expect the whole thing to work, from providing relationship counselling to prevent relationship breakdown in the first place, all the way through to annual charging for cases to go through the CSA

Am still looking for where it says about it being an annual fee, but am sure I read it in there somewhere

I blooming well hope arrears will not be written off. If only because that would add insult to injury for lots of NRPs whose cases were that bit older, resulting from the crappola CSA1. They have already been bullied and threatened into paying thousands of £ in arrears that were never rightfully owed in the first place.

the recent bill of welfare reform was a few weeks ago in Feb. it was in a few newspapers. i'll put in the links in a minute.

the impact assessment is, if i am reading this right?!!:

www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/ia-strengthening-families.pdf

Apologies for my spelling btw

softkittywarmkitty I totally agree. But if they colse the case and open a new one those 3 years of non compliance means nothing. I have now going on 6 years of non compliance. How do I prove that in a new case?
It will just be 6-7 months of him promising to pay and not. And I pay £50 for that privilege.

I can't sleep, I need flaming doctor lol Or a drink.

forgive me if this has already been mentioned (I'm not paying attention as it's so late, blame chris moyles on tv) but I'm sure they are also introducing a new computer system for the csa.

Excuse me for being a teensy-weensy bit cynical about this but the words 'new I.T system' and 'government' don't exactly fill me with confidence.

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/18/welfare-reform-bill-domestic-violence-mothers

this article talks about arrears being written off-amongst other things.

www.gingerbread.org.uk/news/98/Welfare-Reform-Bill-proposals-risk-jeopardising-vital-child-maintenance

If that is the case I am wondering if there is scope for a class action by all the NRPs I mentioned earlier. I don't expect most people on MN to be that bothered about this side of the fence, but I can tell you that many of the so-called arrears are, in a moral sense at least, owed by nobody but the CSA themselves. Yet so many NRPs have paid such a heavy price over the years for their total incompetence.

Once again it will be the feckless, persistent non-paying NRPs who get the last laugh. So bloody typical of the whole shambolic perverted system.

Bastard Tories.

Ceretrea, dont forget it is still in 'consultation'. they dont want courts, they want a type of mediation. we will have to wait and see i guess. i completely agree about your solving conflict point.

To those people thinking disgusting thoughts about the welfare state (mostly comments on those links) think of this:-

What exactly is going to happen to the children when the Mum is on the street?

Tories have already proposed that under 35's cannot claim full housing benefit. Working tax credits do not pay holiday childcare (school holidays). Once your child is 5 you are forced to go on JSA from income support and find a job.

So once the mum pays for childcare, rent, solicitors, travel to work, food, bills. Well she can't can she? So the child is given to the parent who can afford to support them. The father. Isn't this what its all about really?

Do those people even know British law? Do they realise that the father can be a convicted child abuser but as long as he hasn't abused his own kids he has a right to contact. This law is blind. These reforms are blind.
Too much media bias on the kinds of setups that go on Jeremy Kyle.

I mean come on, there was a bloke on there one week who stated he spent £400 a week benefit money on cannabis. £400 a week from where???? He was claiming as a single bloke ffs!! and people believe this crap and swallow it like the Tory sheep they are.

(blood pressure critical)

calm down! i'm feeling guilty now for putting up the links! sorry!

Lego on that link they are tying it up to the family courts. Mediation is generally conducted by court appointed officials in my experience. As he won't agree and I won't be anywhere near him I effectively cannot make him pay maintenance.

Sorry, will leave this now and go calm down somewhere lol

Ceretrea, this proposal is crap, but since when can you not get tax credits to pay for holiday childcare? That is news to me.

I get the childcare element of TC for 80% of the total yearly cost, spread out in even monthly payments. OK so some months I will be out of pocket, and others I will be better off (because I will have less childcare to pay for), but it evens out over the year.

Its all the same to me, DSs father is out of the country and unemployed, so has never and probably will never pay a penny (doesn't even send a christmas/birthday card), so we manage. This will just mean more kids lose out like my DS. Which is crap.

oh, i though it was the sort of mediation i tried that had nothing to do with courts.
gingerbread says that the csa will take it up if : ex ptnr agrees or if it can be shown that the former partner is unlikely to pay without CMEC stepping in. doesnt that apply to you?

That depends on whether the 'old' case will be taken into account or not. If its closed and not applicable we'll have to start from scratch again :/ If thats the case, then they'll be no case. But it depends who they are going to force into mediation. I might not have to, remains to be seen.