[Solved] CSA Payments can they take money from wife salary?

Hi

No, it's assessed on your salary only, not your partner/wife's. It might be worth notifying the CSA now and getting reassessed - you then have the option of paying extra voluntarily or using a family based arrangement.

Hi Gums.

Thank you for your post. My name is William I am the Child Maintenance Options consultant.

The Child Support Agency (CSA) works out child maintenance payments based on your income alone. This includes earnings, money from an occupational or personal pension and tax credits. They use the amount of income left after deductions such as Income Tax, National Insurance and any money paid into a personal pension scheme.

They also take in to account any Child/Working Tax Credits that you, or your partner, may receive. This is because it is classed as a household income.

The only time Working Tax Credits would not be taken into account is if your partner is the main earner in your household. However, Child Tax Credits are always taken into account.

Other factors are taken into account (including the number of children that need child maintenance, and if you live with any other children) but this does not include your new partner's income.

There are many other financial factors that may be taken into account by the CSA, so you may wish to speak with them directly about your change of circumstances.

Their contact details can be found on any letter they have sent you, or this website http://www.gov.uk/child-support-agency provides their contact details.

I can see actd has suggested you set up a family-based arrangement, this type of agreement is not legally binding but it gives you the flexibility to agree between you what counts as child maintenance, and to change your agreement as your children get older or your circumstances change.

For more information about family-based arrangements and access to useful tools and forms online you can visit http://www.cmoptions.org, or if you'd prefer a confidential chat you could call the Child Maintenance Options team on 0800 988 0988 (free from a landline).
We also have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful, it offers help and support to separating families. The link is: http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation

Thanks for all of your help. Relations between me and my ex haven't been good but have improved recently I will try to arrange a family-based arrangement but I would need something that would protect me as she has lied to the CSA in the past when I was paying her direct and they got as far as issuing court proceedings and a years worth of investigation before they believed I had been paying her -luckily it had all gone through the bank - it turned out I had overpaid but it was a year of added stress that I didn't need. What would stop her from doing this again in the future if we did an agreement between us?

...you would need to set up a standing order from your bank to hers and reference it as child maintenance . You would have proof that you made regular payments and what is was for. 🙂

...you would need to set up a standing order from your bank to hers and reference it as child maintenance . You would have proof that you made regular payments and what is was for. 🙂

I'll stress the bit about the reference - if you don't say on the s/o that it's child maintenance, the CSA may well not accept it as that and you'd end up paying again.