The Child Support Agency (CSA) makes sure parents who live apart from their children contribute financially to their upkeep by paying child maintenance. If a parent avoids their financial responsibility to their children by failing to pay child maintenance, the CSA will take action to get the money they owe. The original aim of the Agency, often quoted by the management, was to eradicate child poverty in the UK.

Many cases run smoothly under the CSA and many children and their carers are receiving money they would otherwise have had to do without. Unfortunately, some people are not happy about the system.

The main complaints from parents caring for the child at least half the time are the length of time taken to process the case, or that they feel the non-resident parents are not paying enough. The main complaints from non-resident parents will be that they think they are paying too much or that they don’t think they should be paying at all.

If you think you may be entitled to more child maintenance than you are receiving please contact Katy’s constituency office on 01505 684 127 or contact the CSA directly on 08457 133 133

OLD RULES/NEW RULES

Old Rules

Child Support cases can be covered by one of two schemes – old rules and new rules. Cases received and actioned before 2nd March 2003 are often old rules. There are however various ways an old rules case can be changed to new rules, i.e.:

1)If a fresh claim is made against a non-resident parent under new rules any existing old rules case, where he/she is non-resident parent, will be changed to new rules.

2)A private (i.e. non- benefit) parent caring for the child at least half the time can chose to close an old rules case and re-open under new rules after 13 weeks. If a fresh claim is made within 13 weeks it is still assessed under old rules. Arrears from his/her old rules case can still be collected.

New Rules

Any claim received after 3rd March 2003 is a new rules case. Even if a case was received before this date if a non-resident parent did not receive a Maintenance Enquiry Form before 1st March 2003 it is still new rules.

New rules simplify the CSA process by considering mainly only 4 pieces of information:

1)How much is the non-resident parent earning?
2)Has he/she any children in his/her household?
3)How many qualifying children does he/she have to pay for?
4)Does he/she have shared care of any of the children?

The maximum maintenance calculated can be is 30% of a non-resident parents’ net income. When arrears are deducted the protected income is 60% of his/her net income.

In new rules Interim Maintenance Assessments have been replaced with Default Maintenance Decisions (DMD). If the non-resident parent has not provided sufficient information for a Maintenance Calculation to be made, a Default Maintenance Decision can be calculated. The non-resident parent will be liable for the Default rate based on the number of more qualifying children:

•£30 where there is one more qualifying children
•£40 where there are two more qualifying children
•£50 where there are three or more qualifying children

“Job-Hoppers”

Though the new rules system is much simpler, there are still ways to get round the system.
A common method of avoidance under both rules is to “job hop”. If a non-resident parent fails to pay, a Deductions of Earnings Order (DEO) can be given to his employer, obliging him/her to take deductions from the non-resident parent’s wages. Many non-compliant non-resident parents at this point will simply move onto a new job, requiring a trace procedure, which can take a considerable time.
To counteract this it is now possible for CSA staff to refer any “job hopping” non-resident parent directly to Enforcement. This is a fairly recent change to procedure and not all staff may be aware of it so it wouldn’t do any harm to mention it if this is relevant to your case.

If you are experiencing trouble with a “job-hopper” please contact Katy’s constituency office on 01505 684 127 or call the CSA directly on 08457 133 133.



For more information about the Child Support Agency please visit their website by clicking here [1].