Aibu to ask for more maintenance?

[sunnymorning]

My sons father and I split up when he was a baby, maintenence was initiated by the csa at the time purely because my solicitor advised it be done this way. Ds is now 14, in these years the amount hasn't increased, his father lives with his parents, works in a partnership with a friend and has no other dependants. Ds has recently chosen not to spend time with his dad(for good and legitimate reasons not influenced by me). Previously he would spend every other w/e and a portion of school holidays with his dad (dad lives 100 + miles away so more regular contact was difficult. He has never not paid. My question is, does the csa continue to follow up on maintenance payments, ie if his father had pay rises would I automatically get an increase or do I need to go back to them to check? Is it unreasonable because ds has chosen not to see his dad to ask for more money? In your experience is it easier to just not upset the apple cart and be grateful the maintenence is regular, I appreciate I'm lucky that so far it has never been a problem. I'm not destitute, but financially things are not easy. Why do I feel so guilty about asking for more?

My maintenance has just gone up, CMS sent me a letter about it. I didn't do anything or need to tell them anything and neither did ExH.

Ahh. I'm guessing they will increase it then if he had a payrise.... From his point of view I guess there is a benefit to working with a mate and having some control over what the tax man gets to see. Thank you.

If he's self employed, his wages will be minimal as it will all be written off as expenses and tax deductible

Under the old csa assessment you had to apply for a reassessment so no it would not have increased even if his salary had.

The new system is different, it will cost you to do an assessment. After that many years it is likely his salary has increased if he has not downgraded jobs.

The way it works now is they do an assessment of nrp income annually. This should pick up any pay increases etc. You cant request a re assessment anymore, but would be worth calling up to find out whats going on with your case if you havent heard anything. And aslong as hes not making payments they will accumulate as arrears. He will be liable for your dc until hes 20/leaves ft ed/gets job etc.

I have to phone and report him every year during review time which is now, he works for himself so fiddles his books to get out of paying etc it’s not always done automatically at all. Just ask them to check his HMRC reports.

You can definitely request a reassessment, obviously it depends on circumstances and evidence if necessary but you can request one. April time every year I have to.

So worth checking then, I'll give them a call now. Thank you.