he has not paid any CS before and has had no letters or anything from CSA sayign that he has needed to. the letter that he got was saying that he has refused to pay it so now it has to get taken out of his acc and that he agreed for it to happen so they were basically just sending the letter to let him know the dates that the payments were coming out.
they have been split for nearly a yr and she told him that she didnt need any money from him and then as soon as he gets a new gf all this stuff come up.
and it seems that the she only started stopping them from goign to him a week after he got this letter liek she knew she would get more money kinda thing.
he doesnt want to claim any of the centerlink payments but i had just read that he could.
so my main question is that i didnt write last time opps lol....... When she was gettin all this set up shouldnt he of had some contact with the CSA about his income and other details. because the letter didnt even get sent to his address it got sent to my mums place (isnt even his mum)
should have been contact. if they have employer details for garnishing wages sounds like someone has been in pretty close contact with them. i'd be giving them a call and finding out more if i were him.
my DH used to work with CSA - I can get him to read this when he gets home and then write something back but I bet the first thing he will say is that your brother will need to call CSA and see what the deal is exactly. Also in regards to the custody, like BG said - it is better to have things written down than verbal agreements. Be back later with DH
thanks for that.
i knwo he should ring them but he wants to have a bit of info about it all first so he knows wat he is talkin about because the ex is always playing stupid games.
He needs to call them asap - the CSA staff dont bite - well most of them don't anyway.
A couple of things he should be aware of :-
1/ If she is having care of the kids most of the time and is receiving FTB from centrelink then she will most likely have been told to call CSA or her potential benefit will be reduced.
2/ A parent can register a case for child support anytime after they have seperated.
By the sound of it there is no dispute regarding the fact he is the father and is required to pay child support, but the issue is the lack of communication from CSA to him and what is happening.
3/ CSA has processes that are fairly strict in regards to contacting parents when a Child Support case is registered for the first time (theoretically to stop what has happened to your brother from happening). They are meant to do a number of searches to locate contact details for the parent and record all the contact attempts that have been made ( as your brother can probably appreciate there are one or two parents out there who try and dodge there responsiblity to pay child support - so a case can be started if contact has not been made, but a number of processes mut be completed before this occurs)
4/ He should definitely keep written records of the time he has the children in his care.
5/ If the letter was not sent to his address - then CSA have an incorrect address for him and this could explain why he hadn't received any contact previously.
6/ I cannot stress enough that he should call CSA asap. They can explain to him what has happened and what this means to him. They can explain to him what his rights and obligations are. CSA does not work for either parent rather they try and sit between and manage the financial aspect of seperated parents.
7/ Importantly most decisions that CSA make can be appealed ( he can't object to having to pay child support if he is the father and the children are in the mums care ) but he can object to many other things - CSA staff can advise him of his rights in this regard. While CSA staff will generally do everything by the book - they are people and human error does occur. There are also external options to object to decisions made by the CSA - however he needs to exhaust the internal processes first.
8/ The letters that are sent are standard letters and generally poorly written and are sent based on the assumption the verbal contact has been made. ( this was one of my major issues when I was there )
While he is probably feeling upset about what has happened and then getting the letter out of the blue, the best thing for him to do is give them a call and explain his situation and what has occured. CSA will then be able to advise him what has occured and what his options are. It is best for him to be as calm as possible when he does this and to remember that the CSA is there to help him as much as possible.
I hope this helps and encourage him to call CSA asap - as someone mentioned earlier if he doesn't feel like he can have the conversation then he can ring them - complete the id check and then pass the phone to someone else to talk on his behalf. Have the letter with you when you ring as has an id number on there to enter when making the call and it should go through a CSA staff member who is managing his case at the moment, or someone who can access his case.
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