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Hi
My daughter is 16 and next week will be going to college. Since her mum and I split 9 years ago I have always paid money through a voluntary agreement. For the last 5 years I have also had my daughter every other weekend and every Tuesday and Wednesday night (in effect 3.5 days a week). As well as this I have also paid additional amounts, mobile phone contract, clothes etc, as well as all of picking up and dropping off where my daughter is concerned.
With the college being a 5 mins walk away my daughter has indicated she will be spending more time with me and as a result I have advised her mum I will be cancelling the payments but even if my daughter changes her details to registered here I would not expect any money from her. I also told her I would increase the money paid to my daughter to ensure any additional transport and other costs related to college would be covered. To me this is reasonable and I assumed she would see things the same way. That was until I received CSA froms through the post this morning.
Having checked the calculation tool is seems I have been paying more than I should have for the last 5 years. As this has been a voluntary agreement (although nothing in writing) am I able to put in a claim to get the overpayments taken into account. Based on my current salary I have been overpaying by £60.00 a month, this figure would be more the further back I go as I have had a good pay rises the last few years. I calculate I have overpayed by £4,500!!
I am not looking to take money from her mum, as stated above I want this taken into account by the CSA. If I had underpaid I know they would have taken that from me.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hi
The situation you described above seems very fair to me and makes a lot of sense. However, the PWC has ALL the rights and your thinking (although makes sense) will not stand up in a court of law (CSA). Whether you like it or not, you will need to pay your ex-wife for as long as your ex-wife claims through the CSA and / or until your daughter is 18.
Also, I am afraid that you cannot claim for over-payments. The CSA does not take this into account at all. The CSA will only take account of payments required from the point the CSA make a decision as to how much they say you should pay.
The only way to deal with claiming your money back is to stop payments to your wife from now until CSA make a decision on how much you should pay (I am not suggesting you do this - but this is a legal option which can not be challenged by the CSA).
Good luck
Matt
If your daughter is staying more that 3.5 days with you, I would look to applying for the child benefit directly to you, in which case the CSA will not assess you for payments from the date child benefit starts being paid to you - whether you then go for maintenance from your ex is entirely up to you - personally, I would be inclined to do so and to put that money into a savings account for your daughter for when she wants her own place.
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