CSA and their stupid rules

[makemineamalibuandpineapple]

No doubt this has been done to death, there is nothing anyone on here can do about it but I just feel I need a rant!!

My ex-husband was made redundant 5 months ago and got approx £60k. He now no longer has to pay maintenance as he is unemployed. However, he lives with a woman who has three children who he is obviously supporting.

It makes me so cross that he is happy to support someone elses children when he won't give even a small amount to his biological child. Just because the law says he doesn't have to, you would have thought he might have felt a moral obligation.

I know people will say "oh but that money will have to last him until he finds a job". But I have heard him on the phone to DS telling him about all the things he is spending it on so he is hardly being careful with it.

Phew, rant over Has anyone else had a similar experience that they would like to have a good old moan about?

I have not yet met a woman who is perfectly happy and able to raise her children on an amount calculated by the CSA.

I guess the CSA calculations are fair if both parents earn the same salary, otherwise is just... not enough.

I have met non resident parents who continue to pay maintenance from their savings when they are out of work, the fact that he has £60,000 to survive and has stopped paying maintenance makes me think that the OP is right to be annoyed.

Even if the OP was not working that is still totally irrelevant as the resident parent is still putting the lion share of the work involved in raising a child and believe me, getting a nanny to do that work would be far more expensive than the meagre CSA calculated maintenance. If she were not working, the more the reason she needed that support. In these recession days is not as if you can go to the job centre and be at work the next day, and he should know that by now having been made redundant.

"I guess the CSA calculations are fair if both parents earn the same salary, otherwise is just... not enough"

That's just a silly statement to make

If, say, the nrp earns £60k, then monthly cm payments for 1 child would be about £480. In what way is this "not enough" as a contribution towards 1 child? Given that the state disregards child maintenance payments for benefits (and tax credits) purposes, it's a fairly substantial contribution I would say. My child certainly doesn't cost me anywhere near that per month.

That's ok if you are earning enough to pay the rent/mortgage, services, etc yourself so you can use thd whole of the child maintenance in keeping the child dressed and entertained.

There are however a huge number of parents outhere who need to use part of that child maintenance to keep a roof over their heads. Obviously you can claim that that's what housing benefit for but not everyone who needs it qualifies for it.

Unfortunately, many mothers have made the idiotic mistake to stop working to take care of the family and support their husband's career (I was ond of those) so I find it interesting that while my ex can continue with his high flying career, our son who a few years back attended private school, from one day to another qualified for free school dinners.

Obviously, I'm not going to let my son down, and have two jobs to support him the better I can, but he is nowhere near to have the quality of life my ex 's new stepson is enjoying. But as my ex rightly said... The state would take care of us, and he was right, we would be living under a bridge nowadays if it were not for the blessed tax credits :-)

Watching with interest, as I have the CSA calling me in the next week.

Savings and assets can not be depleted to provide maintenance. It is only the income, if any, that arises from the savings or assets. For example. Interest on savings in Bank or Rental Profit from Property.

My ex-wife tried to dip into my redundancy money. Both CSA and Courts said no on basis that she was working and had a net income of 1200/per month and that I was paying mortgage and utilities at family home anyway

Why is it that ex-wifes think they are entitled to all of ex-husbands earnings and savings? Can none of them work out that ex-husbands have needs too? ie they need somewhere to live, something to eat, clothes to wear, etc.

All maintenance, whether it is CM or SM, is based on needs and the ability of the paying partner to pay. Greed, revenge, anger, wants and wishes are not taken into account.

To SteamGirl. CSA excludes savings below 65K when calculating CM. Even then it is the income arising from savings and assets. As interest rates are low NRP would need a substantial sum to exceed the £2,500 per year limit for unearned income. Assets that do not generate income at all are excluded by law that was introduced a few years ago. There was a recent case in which NRP had pension pot of over £5 Million. However, as pension pot was not producing any income it was excluded by law. NRP paid £7 per week as assessed by CSA.