Child support agency

[ceh105]

My partner is just beginning involvement with the CSA. Is there anyway you can despute the amount they wish to deduct? I ask this because his wage varies dramitically monthly and the last three wage slips they require are his high paid months.

[MangoPete]

I know a little about it
but first
Is your partner self employed?
Who has asked for csa was it a previous partner or are they just taking money to offset benefits such as income support?

[ceh105]

No he is not self employed. He has been paying the mortgage etc for 2 years since they split. She has now moved out of the house and has contacted the CSA.

[TheBaron]

How is the amount of Child Maintenance worked out?
The Agency take into account:

the day to day cost of maintaining a child;
the income of the parent with care and the Non-Resident parent after making allowance for tax, national insurance, half of any pension and basic living expenses, including rent or mortgage costs. The income of the parent with care can serve to reduce the Non-Resident parent's payments but in most cases is not high enough to do so;
any other children either parent may have.
New partners of either parent will not be expected to pay anything towards the child support maintenance of children who are not their own.

However, partner income details are required because: Where the parent with care and their current partner or the Non-Resident parent and their current partner have a child(ren) of their relationship it needs to be established if the partner can contribute to the upkeep of that child(ren).

In the case of a Non-Resident parent, information is required to check that the income of the Non-Resident parent's household does not fall below certain limits if the maintenance liability was met in full.

A formula is used to work out how much child maintenance is payable. It takes account of each parent's income and essential outgoings.

[TheBaron]

The formula has six elements:

the maintenance requirement: this is the basic amount which all parents are required to contribute to the maintenance of their children if they can afford to; it represents the weekly cost of maintaining each child based on the weekly allowances in the Income Support Scheme;
exempt income: this represents the weekly amount which parents are deemed to need for their own essential living expenses. This "exempt income" figure is deducted from net income to arrive at a figure for "assessable income" which is the income from which maintenance is deducted;
the deduction rate: maintenance is deducted at the rate of 50 percent from "assessable income" until the maintenance requirement is met;
the additional element: an extra payment required from parents who have assessable income left after they have met the maintenance required for their children;
protected level of income: this is the minimum amount which Non-Resident parents must retain after meeting their maintenance obligations. It ensures that Non-Resident parents and any second family are significantly better off after paying maintenance than they would be if receiving Income Support;
a minimum amount: if the formula produces a figure which is less than a prescribed minimum amount (currently �5.60 at 2004/05; �5.70 2005/06 rates) then the Non-Resident parent will pay that minimum amount unless exempt, for example because he has a dependent in his household or he is disabled.
In addition, there are safeguards to ensure that Non-Resident parents do not pay more than 30 percent of their net income in maintenance assessed under the child support maintenance formula. If they owe arrears they will not generally be asked to pay more than 33 percent, unless they have failed to make or keep an agreement to pay maintenance arrears when they may be required to pay up to 40 percent of their net income if a Deduction of Earnings Order (