Have been thinking about the nasty CSA charges next year, it might be better for us to take a big financial hit than ask XP for more money.

[Meglet]

For months I've been panicking at the thought of the CSA writing to XP next year and saying they will be increasing his monthly payment (by £30/40 I reckon) so that they can start charging us for using the service. I have a bad feeling it will send him on the war path, so not only will we be financially worse off we'll have the police out again and everything kicking off.

So, maybe it would be wise to just say to them to not increase his payment and just take a bit more out of my money. Yes, I know how awful it will be losing all that money every month but at least it will keep us safe and XP won't know any better.

I can't see another way around it if I want to keep us safe and XP calm (we have nothing to do with him).

Bloody Tories .

Can you do that? Don't they just decide what he should pay and automatically try to collect it all?

If he's remotely reasonable, you could contact him (eg write to him), make sure he understands why his payments will go up, and ask him if he would instead be willing to set up a direct debit for whatever he currently pays - then you could drop the CSA claim. But that will only work if he is likely to co-operate. If you think he'd be likely to set it up and then cancel it, you might be better off sticking with the CSA.

They won't do that, as they'll put systems in place to work out the percentage they'll take off each parent. However they should write to him & explain why it's going up, so he won't take it out on you.

Are you sure they'll take as much as an extra £40? I think the max they'll take from the NRP is 12% of the monthly payment, but it could be less - don't think it's been confirmed yet.

purple it's too risky to contact him. He's not at all reasonable, he threatened to kill us all at one point. TBH if he won the lottery I wouldn't ask for more money as he would want to see the dc's and we'd be in trouble again.

softwarm An extra 12% would be about £35. I can't see him being happy about it. If anything pisses him off we will bear the brunt of it. I don't know his current financial situation, if he's not very flush then extra maintenance money will only make him irate.

I just want it to stay as it is so he doesn't have to think about us and the same amount can come out of his account as it's always done.

I read somewhere that if it is an abusive relationship charges are not incurred. Thats the stance I'm intending to take, although I havent seen him or heard from him in five years!

AFAIK people from abusive relationships won't have to pay the set-up fee but we will still be charged every month. The police will have a record of his harrasment which might help.

eternalscot 'good' to hear from someone else who still gets the money despite no contact. I feel like a freak because I get maintenance but we don't have to see XP. Although I have met a couple of other people in RL who always got paid but the father never saw the kids until they were adults.

Meglet - I can't imagine they'd let abusive partners off the extra charge really - that would mean charging non-abusive men more than abusive ones, which would hardly seem fair.

I think you're right - it was the set up fee they were talking about not charging, but didn't they drop that in the end anyway? Or did they just reduce it?

Is this really happening then? How will it work? They take money from both parents? That's really shit isn't it? The men who won't bloody pay should pay the full cost. I really hate being a single parent. I need to start playing the lottery.

AFAIK they will charge £20 to set up a CSA case. The case that I set up 2yrs ago and has been running without problem will be closed down and I will have to pay to start it up again .

Then they will take a cut of 15-20% of the NRP's payment.

Then take a cut of 7-12% of the residential parents payment.

Fuckers.

So in a years time I assume they CSA will write to abusive XP and tell him he has to pay more every month.

But me and the DC's will end up with less.

I understand taking money from the nrp who refuses to pay which is not exclusively but more often the reason we go through the csa, but take money away from mothers or fathers who are often already struggling is typical of this government. It's all very sad.

yes. XP wouldn't pay until I got the CSA involved.

The government think we're all thick and can't arrange a private agreement and want to make us pay for the CSA. I can arrange a private agreement but it's not much good if I have an abusive XP who can stop it when he's angry about something (which happened to us).

Sorry you're in such a crappy position meglet

Does anyone know what will happen to cases with arrears if the cases are going to be closed down and re-opened again? It all just seems like such a nightmare

No I think the arrears stay.
I think the government started this because of the few mothers who already received maintenance and communication with the other party but use the csa as a weapon for control, I personally don't know anyone like this but I have heard of them. I would not receive a penny if it was not for the csa so I suppose I just have to suck it up. It will be interesting to see if the amount of claims goes down. I receive my money via deduction of earnings order.

I don't think it's about stopping using the CSA as a method of control, eternal. The government's stated reason is to encourage people to work out a private arrangement. Chances are those who can do this will already be doing so though, because the CSA is notoriously crap.

The real reason is fairly obviously just to save money - or possibly even to make money as the amount they'll take in their cut is currently much more than what it costs them to process each claim apparently.

who do they think will vote them in next time? What an utterly vile government.

eternal - I am one of those on the receiving end of a woman who used the CSA for control...as it is saves me a lot of strife, she is now forced to deal with CSA which can be a lot more inflexible than what I was offering.

ds's father refuses any contact with us (not that i want it with me, but he refuses to see ds) so i have no choice but to use the csa. i think this is massively unfair. i have no way of contacting him and trying to set up a private arrangement yet i'm to be penalised

anyone know where/how to find out the details of how all this is going to work and when etc? be really grateful for a link.

saf AFAIK it kicks in next April for the 2013-financial year.

The last I heard was that they would stop all current claims then charge us to start them up again. I might e-mail Gingerbread actually.

I'm going to speak to the CSA and see if they can take all their commission out of my money, I would rather lose more money than lose a little bit and have XP on the rampage because he's paying more.

For £5 a week there would be absolutely no point me claiming anything from NRP, so all that happens is more men wont have to support their responsibilities ! Another way to hit us parents in the pocket again. It's the kids who suffer though, but this government don't care, the figures show there are more children in poverty now and the figures will be even higher with this new system!