Ex has got CSA on us

[guaranagal]

I know people will have mixed views on this but here goes, need to get it off my chest.

Today DOH gets his payslip and there is a mysterious deduction of £218. Turns out X has got CSA on to him.

So he is taking home a grand total of £950 a month now.

It's a nightmare. We simply can't cope on the money we have left.

It's a complete waste of time her doing this - obviously vindictive.

We buy EVERYTHING for DSS as she is on benefits (and she gets the child benefit despite us having equal care).

We buy school uniform, all clothes, most food, furniture for his room at both houses, do all school runs so petrol and car upkeep, holidays, days out etc etc etc.

She pays nothing. Not a dime. This has always been the arrangement and we have been happy with it.

Now because she is on benefits, the CSA money doesn't actually go to her. It just offsets her benefits.

So she is worse off (as she is going to have to buy all clothes, uniform etc etc).

We are worse off (£218 a month to be precise).

DSS is worse off (he will have hardly any treats - swimming lessons will have to stop, days out, holidays, parties).

It's not like we were avoiding paying for the child, we were doing everything. But now she has gone and put a giant spanner in the works by crippling us financially.

We are going to have to live on about £20 a week now after all our bills. £50 a week is a LOT of money in these times.

DOH was going to go back to Uni in Sept and retrain as a teacher (he works in factory) but I just don't think it's going to be possible.

We were putting aside £50 a month into DSS university fund (not a lot but it'll help) - that will have to stop.

So upset, this has ruined both our present and DSS future. Don't know what to do.

DOH even talking about giving up work as not worth all the hours to have £20 a week to live on and also about moving into shared lodgings. This will massively impact our quality of life as a family. We already live in 1 bedroom.

So sad and distressed. Hope someone can identify.

[KingCanuteIAm]

BTW what did the CSA say about the fact you have dss half the time? Any monies should be reflective of that?

[MrsBonJovi]

By the way if she seems to suddenly have more money it may be because she isnt declaring the maintenance to Income Support.

Since Oct 08 there is no automatic interface with the CSA. May be worth ringing the benefit fraud hotline if she suddenly starts spending lots.

[prettyfly1]

I wonder if this is a back dated payment - that would explain what has gone on here however I second that your oh is lying about something. You dont just get a deduction of earnings that fast - it doesnt work that way and you look after this child half the time so the amount will be pitifully small that you have to pay her - tell him to call them in front of you and find out what is really going on here.

[Snorbs]

CSA will reduce payments based on the number of nights the child spends with the non-res parent. If the OP's SS only spends days with OP, that won't count with the CSA.

It might be that the OP's DP knows more about this than he's letting on, but it could also be the CSA's mistake. Eg, if the CSA has been sending correspondence to an incorrect address, they may have assumed that he was ignoring them deliberately. I know it's almost unheard of for the CSA to make mistakes but I'd consider that possibility before accusing DP of lying.