Background to the Child Support
Agency.
The CSA was set up in February 1993. It is a known fact that
the CSA has had major problems since it’s incorporation
in managing the collection of arrears, this despite having 11,000
full time employees. At present the CSA is managing some 1.5 million cases of which
920,000 are those on what is called the “old assessment
system”.
In March 2003, the new scheme began, and any cases under the
new system are referred to as CS2
with cases before this time being known as under CS1.
Glossary of terms.
We have provided a very detailed glossary to describe the meaning
of words concerning this section which can be accessed either
on our front page.
Bailiffs and the Child Support Agency.
The following companies are contracted to collect Child Support Agency arrears.
• Drakes Group Ltd
• North West Commercial Services Ltd
• Phillips Ltd .
How much money can the CSA take from me?
You should be aware that in order to make a claim for maintenance
using the Child Support Agency, is was assumed
that you needed to be in receipt of state benefits. However this
is not strictly the case, you may make a claim if you are not
receiving benefit.
Up until recently, it was the case that those parents with care,
on benefit, had no option but to use the CSA….but even this
rule has been relaxed slightly and PWC can now “opt out”…..but
they could face losing 40% of their
benefit unless they can prove “good cause”, ie: that
either they, or the child, are at risk or harm etc.
The calculation for working out the rate of deduction for outstanding
child maintenance is complicated, but in most cases the level
of deduction is normally around 15% of your take
home pay, in other words, the amount that you actually
receive in your bank account after deductions. But again, there
are occasions where the figure is greater than this…..indeed
there are reports of some cases where some pay up to 30% and that’s
just for regular maintenance…..arrears will often be on
top of this.
The Absent Parent (non resident parent) has a
legal duty to provide income details. However if you are
a partner of a parent you are under
no obligation to comply with this request.
If the CSA are made aware of a change in your employment, they
can carry out a new assessment. However an NRP is not under any
legal obligation to notify the CSA of any change in circumstances.
An important point to remember is that: if for instance you are
working overtime, this is considered as income, and if made aware,
the CSA can assess you for this and all
of the overtime is used in calculations.
Although you should report and change of circumstances, there
is no timescale for this to de done.
The CSA can make the review based on income, but will be in touch
again a few months later to check if overtime has been continued.
A word of caution concerning reporting a change of circumstances
(CoC). A change of circumstances request has to breach the tolerance
level to allow a review to be undertaken, so; if the loss of overtime
does not actually affect the assessment by more than £10
pw the review is not done.
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