CSA or Private

[AngelDust88]

I have a question regarding my ex partner paying towards our son.

He does not currently pay CSA although he does see our son every weekend and buy him clothes, toys, food etc..

He has mentioned he may be starting work again soon but would prefer to setup a private agreement and not go through the CSA.

I trust this and he has also said he is willing to get it all setup legally so he cant just cancel. Great!

If I do not go through the CSA when he starts work and effectively cancel the CSA by informing them he is paying privately, will this mean I receive less benefits as he is paying me direct.

In other words if he was to give me £160 a month would I be deducted £160 from my benefits, or any other amount for that matter.

I'd assume they would however I have heard different from other people.

Any help on what I have discussed would be appreciated.

Since April this year, the resident parent can keep all of the child maintenance and it doesn't affect your benefits.

Nope.
CSA every time. Do not think you can get away with essentially comitting benefit fraud as it will be extremely easy for them to find out. iirc, they do not actually deduct maintenance from income support now anyway. But always, always go through proper channels. The CSA can be shit, no question, but, if anything else, they have the power to make him pay should anything go sour between you. The fact that he's offering you £160 a month suggests 2 things to me. Either he's workign cash in hand and is doing a fast one himself, or he knows that under the CSA he will be ordered to pay you more.

SandyBits, I am not trying to commit benefit fraud

I would contact the CSA and advise them we have come to a private agreement hence they no longer need to collect the payment from him.

He will then pay me direct into my bank.

I am fine with that and even though i know the guys can be really t*s, in this case its fine and I trust him 100%.

So swuashshedfrogs, are you saying a private agreement between the two of us and CSA cancelled alotgether will not effect any benefits I am already getting?

AngelDust - You might want to look here at the CSA website. They have information about using private agreements rather than going through them and also there's the information about how it all changed in April re benefits. I don't know that much about it all other than what's on the CSA website but it seems quite easy to read.

My understanding is that since April if you are receiving benefits, you are able to keep all of the child maintenance money without it having any impact on your benefits. It makes sense really as the maintenance should be spent on the child and shouldn't related to the parent's benefits.

Tough one that- I got really stitched up by my ex doing both! CSA may sound like a great option but they dont check the validity of documents and ex's that are good with tippex and photocopier can send in false documents to avoid payment- there is also sage accounts where they can concoct their own payslips to show their income as being low to avoid paying you, there is also the directors loophole where they can be paid the minimum wage via PAYE and then top up their salaries via dividend payments. The CSA will only request their tax returns if YOU can prove that their income is way above what they are disclosing- so you do the legwork for them. My experience is that unless you have an ex who is a decent bloke who is willing to support his children then private or CSA there is no advantage in either. Ex's have a nasty habit of wanting to make sure every penny in maintenance goes on paying for the child and not in us trying to provide a stable home to support our kids or on taking them on family holidays etc. I wish you the best of luck- I hope you have a better experience than I have with child maintenance! X