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Why is it that i am having to pay out 21% of my gross salary for just one child. When you take off tax and national insurance it brings my csa payment to 27.5% of my take home salary. The ruling states that for one child i should pay 15% of my wage. I've contacted the Belfast office on numerous occasions but never get any joy. I just seem to get passed from one department to another.
I was paying for 2 lads from my first marraige back as far as 1996 and when my second marraige ended in 2002 my payments were then shared between the 3. Never had any arrears and i now only pay for the youngest child who is now 12 yrs old. I have the money stopped straight from my wages. Asked to be moved to the new system but they told me because i was originally in the old system i can't get off it. Does this mean i'm going to be paying over the odds for the next 7 yrs still or is there any way i can get moved over.
Unfortunately, I think the answer would be yes, but the light at the end of the tunnel is that the CSA payments are changing again - possibly later this year, and I think the intention is to move all people onto it from both CSA1 and CSA2. I think the CSA will charge a fee to both parents, presumably to encourage private arrangements, but I think the new calculation will be 12% of gross income - if your ex realises that this is all she is going to get, and that it will be reduced further by the CSA's fee, then it's in her interest to come to a private arrangement, even if it's at the 12% level, so you may avoid the fees anyway.
I will ask our CMO expert to pop on and confirm/correct what I have said above, so keep an eye out for her reply.
Hi, I'm Sarah, a consultant at Child Maintenance Options.
Regarding your first question about high payments - I think the best course of action is to check that the CSA have the correct information about your income and the number of children you should be paying for. For more information about how the CSA work out child maintenance, see www.direct.gov.uk/childmaintenance.
You are correct in saying that you cannot be moved to the 2003 scheme rules - this is only allowed if both of the following circumstances apply:
- you have made a new application or been named in a new application on or after 3 March 2003
- the children in the new application have a different parent to the children in the existing case
Regarding the upcoming changes to the child maintenance system - the CSA rules are not changing in any way. A new statutory child maintenance scheme is being introduced in October 2012, which is likely to eventually take all new cases. As part of these changes, which are designed to encourage parents to sort out child maintenance themselves whenever possible, the Government is proposing to charge parents for using the new scheme.
Parents with CSA cases will be contacted to explain what their options are and what information and support they can access to help them decide on the best child maintenance arrangement for their circumstances. For now, you should not do anything until you have been contacted by the CSA.
I hope this answer helps.
Sarah
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