contact and maintenance advice please.

[CastroIsDead]

started a thread in relationships about stopping contact between my ds 4 and ex because of his drinking. i want them to have contact but i cant allow ex to have ds whilst under the influence.
contact is agreed between us not court ordered one day at the weekend every week.
ex gives me the maintenance at handover, minuscule amount says he won't pay more.
obviously as he won't be seeing ds for the foreseeable future i won't be getting maintenance.
so just wondering if anyone can advise regarding csa
how long does a claim take?
what info will i need?
how much should ex be paying?
if they charge to start a claim and collect the money how much is that likely to be?
if we came up with an agreement between us can he use my bank details to take out rather than pay into my account?
thanks in advance as you can see im clueless and csa website isn't much help

I'm not quite sure what you mean about using your bank details to take out rather than pay into your account. Assuming the account isn't held in joint names he can't withdraw money from it.

The CM Options website gives you information about the options available to you and there is a child maintenance calculator. In a nutshell currently child maintenance for one child is calculated at 15% of the non-resident parent's net income and there is no charge to claim or collect money.

Once the CSA receive an application it can be 6 weeks or so before payment is received when both parents co-operate.

If he gets any means tested benefits (including a army disablement pension)he only has to pay £5pw and they will take it directly from them so no hassle but if he has less than £100 a week income but no benefits you usually end up with a nil assessment.

Csa are apparently running at a 8/9 week backlog.

They pay 4 weekly in arrears. And no he can't get into your account, but I would always advise not getting direct payments from the nrp ones that piss about enough to need you to use the csa tend not to pay and the csa struggle to enforce when they don't collect the money.

thanks for advice. I've been told he could use old pay slips from when he was only part time to get out of paying is that correct? i have no clue how it works but im getting fed up of struggling day to day with £25 a week from him when im pretty sure he's spending nearly 200 a week on himself.
if they can't force him to pay he could get away with paying nothing is that right?

No that's not right. They ask for current and recent figures and if you believe he has given inaccurate info then they can investigate.

The csa works quite well under certain circumstances but if he's self employed or a job hopper then they are shit.

They can force him to pay but really only if you ask them to collect the money they can even get his employer to pay it before he gets his wages using an attachment to earnings, to and have a read of the child maintenance options website recommended upthread it may reassure you. But be aware they like to paint private arrangements as being wonderful when often they are not.