GRRRRR Child support crap.....:( (LONG)

[XRMummy]

Well it make things a lil easier it looks like we are goin to get a court order to state that DP has full Finacial care of DD so we maybe able to add her...

Just waiting for our Solictior to ring me back so i can ask her about it all......

[Yael]

DH has today off, and he knows he has to look at this.. he will be home in 10 mins.

He did ask if you spoke to somebody from the COA (change of assessment team) directly about it, or just somebody from the general line?

[XRMummy]

Hi yael sorry i didnt realise you had replied to this till now it didnt came up on my threads.... i have been on the phone to the legal services side of CSA this morning as we were told htat getting a court order would be alot simplier then going under reason 10 of COA form but they have infopmred me that we cant get a court order done becoz we are not married... i have been balling my eyes out for half the morning coz we have been told so much crap and we start to think yay somethings are going to go well and now we get told this crap and i have just had enough.......

I did speak to someone at COA and he said that all we could do was fill out the COA form and send it back and hope we get a assessor that is having a good day and alllows our form to go thro but he didnt like our chances becoz DD father isnt dead or living overseas...

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Yael]

Hey Sarah,

Ok, my husband had a look last night, and said it wasn't a simple issue at all. Infact, he said if it was granted, it would be a landmark decision for the CSA. He did say it all depends on how you fill out your COA form. The person he sits next to is a specalist in COA, so he was going to ask the guy what he thought could be done, and look up some stuff at work today, and get back to you over the next few days, as it is a very complicated issue.

[XRMummy]

Yael you and your DH are gems thank you so much

I really didnt think that just becoz DD father isnt known would cause so much trouble LOL
I htought it would makes things a lil easier actually but that doesnt seem to be the case.....

Once again thank you so much to you and your DH...
I look forward to hearing from you both in the next few days

Sarah

[Yael]

Ok, so sorry it has taken me so long to reply, i got distracted and meant to come back.

Sarah, i don't think you are going to like DH answer:

There is nothing that can be done. I have spoken to another technical officer who is a specialist in change of assessment and he said that what is an isn't allowed to be considered as far as a relevant dependant child in a step-child like relationship is defined very strictly in the new legislation. what I have pasted below is a some text which I have found in the guide, chapter 2.6.16 (CSA - The Guide - 2.6.16: Reason 10 ?€“ responsibility of the parent to maintain a resident child). However, the actual legislative reference is Section 117 (10) of the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989. what is in the guide as far as this is conserned has been copied and pasted from the legislation:

There can be a reason for changing an assessment if the capacity of either child support parent to provide financial support for the child(ren) is significantly reduced because he or she has a responsibility to maintain a resident child.
The three threshold requirements are:
1. There are 'special circumstances';
2. The child support parent has the responsibility to maintain a 'resident child'; and
3. the responsibility significantly affects the child support parent's ability to provide financial support for the child of the child support assessment.
The phrase 'special circumstances of the case' is not defined in the Assessment Act. The Family Court has held that 'it is intended to emphasise that the facts of the case must establish something which is special or out of the ordinary' (Gyselman and Gyselman (1992) FLC 92-279).
The Assessment Act defines 'resident child ' at section 117(10).
A 'resident child' of a child support parent is a child who:
• normally lives with the child support parent, but is not a child of the child support parent; and
• the child support parent is, or was, for two continuous years, a member of a couple; and
• the other member of the couple is, or was, a biological parent of the child; and
• the child is aged under 18; and
• the child is not a member of a couple; and
• one or more of the following applies in respect of each biological parent of the child:
o the biological parent has died;
o the biological parent is unable to support the child due to the ill-health of the biological parent;
o the biological parent is unable to support the child due to the caring responsibilities of the biological parent; and
• the resident child requires financial assistance

I'm so sorry Sarah... it really sucks. Although he did say if you DP adopted your DD, then you would be applying under a different provision... not sure if he wants to, or how he would go about it from a legal POV though.

[Yael]

Kitt3n, this was DH answer to you:

The best thing to do is to apply for change of assessment under reason 8. See the guide for this (CSA - The Guide - 2.6.14: Reason 8 - a parent’s income, property, financial resources, or earning capacity) because it is quite lengthy to explain, but in a nutshell what this reason establishes is the person's capacity to pay is as opposed to what his/her taxable income is. Obviously self-employed people are a prime candidate for this because their 'capacity' could very well be much higher then their taxable income because they can write off or hide money quite easily. Any knowledge/evidence of the payer's actual 'income' or assetts would be required. There are offciers that do investigations into income but there is no guarantee that a case will be picked or what order in the priority list the case will take. A result will be achieved a lot faster by going through change of assessment.

[XRMummy]

thanks yael and thank you to your husband.... its a battle we are just not goin to win.....
kinda sux We looked at adoption 18mths ago but our solicitor told us it would cost between 10 and 15 grand and its just not the sort of money we have at them moment specially seen we are taking DP ex to court so we can see DstepS more and coz she wont agree to any extra time we have had to transfer it to the federial magistrate court and get hte whole family report done and so on and that is costing us just over the 10 grand mark and dat isnt including the money we paid for the last lot of court stuff we had to pay so we could see DstepS for 36 hours a fortnight

Its just crap.. i spose the next thing i can do is try and find DD father and dat aint gunna be a easy task as i dont know his name or where he is from

Ahwell once again Yael thanks so much for your help and your DH help its greatly appreciaited

Sarah