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My son has moved back with me and I have become the primary carer. He chooses when he sees his mother or not. He was living with us one week on and one week off but because Heather has moved away from the area he will be with me for most of the time. I want to agree some changes to the payments (not CSA calculated) but then thought that actually as primary carer, should I be making any at all? Any thoughts?
If you are now the Parent with Care you should claim the Child Benefit and any other tax credits you are entitled to. The fact is she is no longer entitled to the maintenance payments, you are!
If you're arrangement were through the CSA she would now be classed as the paying parent and the amount she would pay would be a percentage of her salary....I think its 20% for the first child. As you have a family based arrangement then its up to you both to renegotiate. If this fails, once you are in receipt of the Child Benefit, you can apply to the CSA for maintenance to be paid through them.
Hi Martin1212
Thank you for your post, I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. Child maintenance is paid to the parent in receipt of the Child Benefit and who has the main day-to-day care of the child. As this is now you, you would need to get the Child Benefit transferred into your name. Please find below the details for HM Revenue and Customs who can provide you with further information on this.
Website: www.taxcredits.inlandrevenue.gov.uk.
With you having a family-based arrangement in place you may wish to try to discuss and negotiate with Heather the child maintenance payments. Family-based arrangements are not legally binding and there are no strict rules or formulas to follow when calculating maintenance. However, they can be flexible to suit both of your circumstances.
To help you maintain your family-based arrangement, we have got a number of guides that you may find useful. We also have a Talking about money guide which offers practical information on a range of subjects linked to separation, such as work and money. If you feel any of these will help you, they are easy to print from our website at www.cmoptions.org.
You may wish to use the online calculator we have available on our website, which will give you an indication on how much you may receive if a n application were made via the Child Support Agency (CSA). This can be found at www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator.
We have a sorting out separation web-app on our website at http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation that you may find useful as it offers help and support to separated families.
If you would like to talk to our team in complete confidence about child maintenance you could give us a ring on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on Saturday. Alternatively, for useful tools and more guides, you can visit our website at http://www.cmoptions.org.
William
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