a csa and benefits question

[nightowl]

i highlighted on the other thread how crap the csa are but just in case...its now been 7 months since i applied. when i sent in the form i was working and so i assume the money would have been mine. then i got made redundant in may. ive been told that whatever money my ex pays will be taken out of my benefit. thats absolutely fine...as far as im concerned he should be paying for his daughter and if i receive it from him instead of the state all the better. but...he obviously owes me money from when i was working and i wondered this...when they finally get him to pay and backdate it...where will the money from january to may go? is it mine...or not? can someone enlighten me?

I don't think it will be yours in one lump sum - they will add you arrears to the monthly payments you get (a little at a time) whether they allow for this in your benefits or deduct it I'm not sure sorry - could be worth giving them a call.

I now have a compensation claim being processed (although they've said this before) I'm hoping to have it resolved by mid Novemeber that'll only be 19 months since I applied

If it's not yours, take it up again with your MP. There is absolutely no justice in the idea that because they're an incompetent bunch of gits who didn't get you the money you're owed at a time when you could have used it, you then lose it to the benefit system. All these things just need to be challenged over and over again, because the CSA will just continue being crap until the postbags of MP's and therefore CSA officers, become so full that it becomes easier to do the job than to deal with the correspondence.

I had problems with the CSA. I had to to deal with incompetent people on the phone. They actually received a payment from the absent parent and then payed it back into his account instead of mine! Doh! Obvioulsy furious i had to go through to the Team Manager, then their Manager and on and on about 5 steps up the ladder till i got to someone who eventually worked it out so that now the money comes straight from the absent parent's employers so i'm not having to chase for it every month.
Having said that, even though it took a while for everything to be sorted out, going to the CSA was one of the best things i did. It took a lot of stress away not having to phone the absent parent every month to hassle for money who, by the way, calls about 5 times a year to see if his child's alive!

So keep with it. My top tip is always always get the full name and team number of the person you speak to and note down what they tell you.

well i did mail my mp so we'll see what he comes up with...no-one seems to know about the money i was owed whilst working though....by rights it should be mine..as far as i know anyway. why should it go to benefits when i didnt claim them at that time...im going to be so pissed if it does.

I Just called the baby's father yesterday teling him i was going to claim csa as we discussed it when ds was a month old i've been on benifits since i was 3 months pregnant at that time he asked me not to go to the csa and to sort it out between ourselves he also said he wanted a dna test(cheeky sod) and that he didn't want ds to have his last name we broke up while i was pregnant and he has never seen his son(he's not interested) my ds in now 19 months old my friends think i should go to the csa and i'm beginning to think like wise but when i got the form they told me to let the father know my intentions to give him a chance to comew some other form of arrangement. he hasn't contacted us since november and at that time i asked him to call back as i was busy and h never did anyway... he replied today saying that there was a slight problem, he'd been made redundant and if i hgad considered what it will do to my benefits? what did he mean by what it could do to my benefits? And should i still apply even tho he's been made redundant also i have a problem with his address as it's been two and a half years since i've seen him and i can't remember what the door number is i know it's one of two i know where he used to work but as he's been made redundant is there an other way for the csa to track him down?

Nightowl, off the top of my head I am not sure where you stand with the backpay but once the csahave finally done their job if you are on benefits as a lone parent yu are still entitled to £20 a week of the money on top of your benefits. Hope I am not repeating anyone.

nightowl, the amount allowed is £10 not £20. Sorry my mistake. I'v been trying to discover what happens to your back payment and am no wiser I am afraid. There is a 'bonus' scheme which means that once you come off income support you could be entitled to a lump sum related to child support paid but that is no help to you at the present.

I wonder if it is viewed as savings or income, both need to be declared but, depending on amount a certain level of savings are not taken into account. However, I am almost certain it will be classed as income.

Sorry, am not helping but should know this due to my work and am determined to find out.

davros don't worry about not knowing his address other details will surfice. It will make a difference to your benefits as you can only keep a small amount of the money on top of your benefits. However, I am surprised that it is not already impacting on your benefits as a claimant of income support or JSA one has to have good reason not to cooperate with CSA without a sanction being made and an amount of benefit being deducted.

However, it is worth getting child support established (depending on your circumstances obviously) as if your circumstances change i.e you take part time work and are claiming working tax credit/child tax credit your child support is ignored.

Dev81, completely wrong name in last post obviously didn't mean davros have lost it a bit tonight ... sorry.

thanks winnie, its one of those strange questions that no-one seems to have a clue about! ive given up phoning them now as they cant seem to explain. will update here though if i find out anything helpful to anyone.

The csa maintenance money that the absent parent is contracted to pay (ie, the little black and white letter we get thro the post saying how much it has to pay...) that hasn't been paid is classed as a debt.
The debt and the paperwork, is then past on to the debt department for assessment. They decide how much extra a month the absent parent should/is able to pay to catch up with the regular payment.

My ex owes somewhere in the region of £8-10,000. He doesnt pay. The debt will remain until paid, even when the child/ren are long gone etc... it is not good which ever way you look at it.

Life's a shit and then... there's CSA!

Thanks Winnie1 it might have had an impact on my beneifits i just didn't realize it had as i'm not sure how much i'm supposed to get if i new that then i would know if it has had an impact.

i just really feel like my head is frazzled with all this! i have received a letter from inland revenue also saying i have to pay them back £500 because my tax credits were wrong. ive also heard i can get a form saying i dont have to pay this...last time it was £70...how many times are they going to screw this up? perhaps i may start another thread on that....

i have received a letter from CSA today with a new calculation starting from 2nd November. not that it means anything...ive had two in june and he still hasnt paid a penny. i think its actually not the email to the mp that has prompted this but that now i am on benefits, i had to fill in a form for the benefits agency and i imagine this is the CSA's response. the amount he has to pay has gone up but i obviously dont receive all of this. i dont understand it though...it now says the amount is for two children...well last time i looked i only had one with him!! it also does not mention any arrears or what will happen to the maintenance i should have received when i was working. shall i write to the CSA too? (ps, mp's office mailed me back to say that the CSA had no record of my reference number and i had to give them more info...i only phone them every week! grrrrr....)

Nightowl, for what it's worth, and maybe after my four Budweiser's I've got it all a* about face, it doesn't matter what your income is or was, whether you're on benefits or not, the amount of money that your exDP has to pay for your child is calculated SOLELY on HIS INCOME and has nothing to do with your income. So, if he earnt £20,000 pr year, he would have to pay you a straight 15%, regardless of what you earnt. As I see it (through Budweiser'd eyes) regardless of when you went on benefits, he would owe you backdated payments fromwhen you claimed. I am however admittedly, totally ignorant of the benefits system. His calculated payment to you would not change because you were on benefit, but your benefit level might drop. I think not, but as I said, I don't know. Sorry if this doesn't help.

alcohol on a saturday..he he. im not too good at explaining. but i know that he owed me £40.00 a week when i was working and that would have been mine. now for some reason he owes me £52.00 a week according to the recent calculation...maybe his income has gone up..i dont know, we have no contact whatsoever. but if that £40.00 should have been mine then i dont see why they should take it out of my benefit now. obviously they will since may when i got my redundancy and thats fair enough...just really want to know what will happen to the backdated payments? if they take them out of my benefit now i will go mad..because i worked and i dont owe this to the state...as far as im concerned anyway. (although if they ever get this from him it will be a miracle in itself!!) ahhhh i really should turn up on his doorstep....

Nightowl, I'll look into it for you, but I'm fairly confident that what he owes you when you were working is now regardless of the fact that you are on benefit now. Does that make sense? In other words, they can't take it out of your benefit. Let me have a look.

thankyou!!

nightowl, if the overpayment is the inland revenues fault you may not have to pay it back.
Go to CAB for free advice. If you do have to pay it back they will bew able to negotiate a reasonable repayment plan

have been looking at that calc more and more today and i really dont understand it. apparently his wages have gone down by about £4.00 yet the amount he is surposed to pay has gone up by £12.00. yet i only get half of this. fair enough if thats to do with my benefits but why does it say the maintenance calculation is for two children when it previously said it was for one? is this something to do with the child that lives with him (not mine)? and if it is, why was this child not taken into account before when the previous calculation seemed correct for his wage and other responsibilities. does anyone know what the 2 means? does it mean my two, his two or that there is another claim against him as well as mine, not including the child that lives with him? am thinking now he has kids all over the place!!!

well would you beleive it...i got a call from csa today from a woman who actually seemed to know what she was talking about. she said they had received the letter from my mp and my first payment was due in december. i asked what would happen if exp now turns around and says he isnt the dad (he knows damn well he is and hasnt said this to my face, just to mutual friends) she said arsily "well its a bit late for him to say that now" you go girl! she did say seriously though that its a bit more difficult when the name isnt on birth cert (he wouldnt let me put it on, the only time i spoke to him since i had the bubba) but she said they would ask him for proof he wasnt around at the time of conception (ie out of country etc)...no problems there then..she also said that although the arrears wouldnt come through straight away, that the arrears from when i was working are mine to keep and will not be taken off any benefit. as for the claim for "2" children...ive gone through the figures and i could be wrong but ive come to the conclusion its a very clever way of him and his gf working it so he pays me less. if the charts are correct then im almost certain thats what theyve done. clever, but not too much if i managed to work it out. i was bloody fuming when i realised.