Wanna make a bet?

[WkdSM]

Old timer who just lurks mostly now - but inviting you all to lay your down and make a bet

Terrible trouble with maintenance issues over the years - DH has always paid what he is meant to but ex set CSA on him after court order came to a stop - now paying £800/mth. SS lived with us 3 years and exW never paid a penny in maintenance

So - now he is back with her - he flunked 1st year AS's and has retaken them this year (sort of - he overslept and missed 1 exam). he has no intention of continuing at college.

So - child benefit should stop on 31st May as his last exam is today - once CB stops, CSA should stop - but CSA rely on CB who rely on exW to give them the info that he has finished his exams and not going back to school.

So - will she tell CB - or won't she?

Place your bets Ladies and Gentlemen - and step-parents!!

Could your DH not simPly contact CB himself.....

Depends if he's signing on or not. If he is, I would assume she'll have to give up the CB (or it will be stopped anyway) - if not I would imagine she might manage to forget for a few months at least. Doesn't it stop at some point anyway?

Agree your DH could tell them himself.

Ladies - unfortunatley CB will not take our word for it (fair enough) - it is up to the exW to tell CB that he has left school and will not be returning - they then stop CB then we have to call CSA and get them to check CB has stopped - then they will close the CSA case - but if she does not voluntarily tell CB we have to report her for benefit fraud and that takes 12 weeks to investigate - during which time we are meant to continue paying CSA - and then if the confirm that overpayments have been made we have to try and get it back from CSA / exW (Not sure which as this point - no one seems to know) - chances of exW paying us an overpayment back - zilch!

But the end is in sight!

wkd - although your DP is expected to continue to pay while an investigation into benefit fraud is ongoing, he could just cancel his payments and allow his CSA account to go into arrears....it takes the CSA AGES to take action against non-payers!

My DP did this after he was made redundant - it took over 4 months for his JSA to be sorted, and the CSA said he needed to carry on paying at the rate he had been on his salary until he had evidence that he was in receipt of JSA - despite the fact that he had no income at all!

DP cancelled his direct debit to the CSA, explained to them why he had done so, and although they called him a couple of times to demand ask for a payment, nothing actually happened, and they re-caculated his account once the JSA was sorted; he had a small arrears to pay - if he had continued to pay at the higher rate, then they would have held £hundreds "on account".

There is no way you will get the money back from the CSA or exW - so if your DP would prefer to spend it on his DS in a way of his choosing, then this might be an option for him?

Update !!

DH called CSA and actually managed to speak to the lady he spoke to when exW claimed after the CO ran out - she remembered him and the situation.

Anyway, she has said she will call exW and try and find out what is going on as if she has not reported the change of situation it is definently child benefit fraud and they will deal with her accordingly. Love to be the fly on the wall then!

I have a sneaking suspicion thoughthat exW will say that he intends to return to college (he does not). We shall see. And good news is that we will be entitled to a refund as we pay a month in advance (probably have to shistle for it but there you go............