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Child Maintenance Service

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abus
Posted by
Elite Member

22 May 14 #434351 by abus

Topic started by abus

Hi Wiki''s

I am hoping someone here is able to help me with this question as I have not seen any clear answers to this anywhere else online.

As I am sure you are all aware, the CSA is to be abolished and will be replaced by the CMS, which will aim to encourage people to come to voluntary arrangements with regards to maintenance.

If couples are not able to come to an agreement then they will be charged (20% for non-resident parent, and 4% for resident parent).

My questions are:

• How will this impact on existing CSA cases?
• What happens if the resident parent refuses to come to an agreement? (even if the maintenance offer is greater than what the CMS calculate)

I am currently paying maintenance and my fear is that stbx will just refuse whatever offer I make, she has also previously refused to receive payments directly into her bank account and stopped access to my daughter.

I have been reading a lot of the comments sections on various news websites reporting on these changes and a lot of people (predominately fathers) also share the same concern.

Hope someone can help

Thanks

Fiona
Platinum Member

22 May 14 #434369 by Fiona

Reply from Fiona

Well they may be more prevalent in the comments section of the press but it isn''t just fathers or paying parents who are concerned. For example Gingerbread, the single parent organisation, and others have been lobbying and campaigning against the introduction of fees.

The new child maintenance Service handles all new child maintenance applications and application, collection and enforcement fees will only be for CMS cases. Existing CSA cases will eventually be transferred to the CMS and my understanding is then fees will be applied to older cases.

The CSA are in the process of writing to parents to advise they must either make their own voluntary arrangements or face paying fees. If no agreement is reached there is an application fee and the recipient of maintenance pays a collection fee as well as the paying parent. So it isn''t in either parent''s interest to go through the statutory child maintenance scheme if it can be avoided.

WYSPECIAL
Moderator

22 May 14 #434377 by WYSPECIAL

Reply from WYSPECIAL

As far as I have seen there is an application fee which the applicant must pay as a one off then the 20% and 4% on going fees only happen if you use the collection service.

If you use direct pay then there are no fees and the recipient can only insist on direct pay if there are arrears which have not been paid. The recipient can''t just unilaterally ask for the collection service in order to cost the person paying more money and anyway they would be daft to as they would get less due to the fees they had to pay as well.

Child Maintenance Options
Moderator

23 May 14 #434478 by Child Maintenance Options

Reply from Child Maintenance Options

Hi

In response to your questions:

1) Fees and charges will not affect cases currently administered by the Child Support Agency; these are only used by the new Child Maintenance Service. If your case is currently managed by the Child Support Agency you will not be affected by the introduction of fees and charges.

2) At the moment, both parents who use the Child Maintenance Service need to agree to Direct Pay. When charges and fees are introduced later in the year, however, the law will change so that either parent can choose Direct Pay without needing the other parent to agree. This will ensure that in most cases both parents have an equal opportunity to avoid ongoing collection fees.

When the fees and charges are introduced, parents will be able to avoid ongoing fees by selecting to pay via Direct Pay. Direct Pay is where the Child Maintenance Service works out the amount of child maintenance a paying parent must pay but both parents agree between themselves how and when the paying parent will pay the receiving parent direct.

The Child Maintenance Service will not force a paying parent to use Collect & Pay – and therefore incur collection fees – without a good reason, such as if the paying parent has missed any payments. Provided that you have a good payment history and no record of enforcement actions having been taken against you, it is likely that you will be allowed to pay directly, without the need for the consent of your ex-partner. This is why it’s more important than ever that you pay voluntarily, in full and on time now. It is also a good idea to keep records of payments made to your ex-partner.

If the paying parent asks to use Direct Pay and the receiving parent does not agree to this, the Child Maintenance Service will contact them. They will advise the receiving parent that it is in both parents’ interests to use Direct Pay and they should provide an appropriate way of accepting the payments.

If the receiving parent refuses to use Direct Pay, the Child Maintenance Service will ask the paying parent to put their child maintenance payments aside until the receiving parent provides an appropriate payment method for Direct Pay. Once the receiving parent does so, the paying parent must transfer the money they have put aside and continue to pay regular child maintenance payments.

If the paying parent doesn’t pay in full and on time whilst on Direct Pay, the Child Maintenance Service can move the case to Collect & Pay if the receiving parents asks them to and take immediate enforcement action. The paying parent may have to pay enforcement charges and, once the case is in Collect & Pay, both parents will have to pay collection fees. Provided that you pay your maintenance directly in full and on time, however, the Child Maintenance Service are unlikely to move your case onto the collect and pay service.

I hope I have helped.

Sarah

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Moderators: wikivorce team, rubytuesday, dukey, hadenoughnow, Tets, Forseti, Mitchum, WhiteRose, Lostboy67, WYSPECIAL, Bubblegum11

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