Child support - do any of you not claim it because you are afraid of consequences?

[electra]

I have discovered that my daughter's dead beat dad is living and working in a town nearby. The CSA informed me that he has a UK NI number and that on that basis I should be able to make a claim, even though he usually lives in Italy.

He doesn't want to see the baby and actually blames me for the contraception failure. I feel that he should make a contribution but my mum is worried he might try to hurt me if I do because he is sometimes violent. He does not have my home address though and he is living about an hour away from me.

What would you do?

bump

Depends how much you need the money. I waited until ds was 3 before I claimed. Ex hid his income and hasn't paid what the CSA awarded. I have just submitted another claim as the CSA said they cannot chase for arrears because I didn't ask them to collect the payments . Ds is now 5.5 and since ex hasn't seen him or had any contact with him since he was 10 days old I feel pretty confident that this won't change now.

I'm mainly doing it as I know ex's dd is at independent school and he pays the fees and yet he declared earnings of below the minimum wage to the CSA.

Can't the CSA collect payments from him via his NI number and tax information MollieO?

I think they can but I have to ask them to do so when I applied. I didn't on the first application and because of that they have said there is nothing they can do. I foolishly thought that he would pay what was assessed without me having to chase. I haven't chased him tbh. He does pay £50 per month but I reckon on his income he should be paying £300+.

Ah right - I have asked them to collect for him and for my ex-H who is also trying not to pay any child maintenance.

if you ask thm for a reassessment they have to ask for the last 6 weekly payslips, or 3 monthly payslips and then base their calculation on that. if the ex refuses to send them or just doesnt they contact the employer who gets a 1000 fine if they dont supply the information so worth doing that. you can also request they do deduction from earnings so they take it immediately from his ay however unless they have shown a history of not paying they are often reluctant to do deduction from earnings. you can ask for these things at any time it doesnt make any difference what you asked for on first application hope that helps