ok i need to get some info for my bro cause he doesnt knwo wats going on and wont ring CSA to find out until he has a little bit of a understanding on wat should happen.
He got a letter from CSA saying you owe $600 and something and that he has agreed to get it taken out of his pay by his employer by them taking $40 out each week ontop of his normal payements until it is paid off.
so the porb is this is the first time he has heard of any of this and the letter says you have agreed, which with having no contact at all from CSA b4 this point he couldnt of agreed.
so what should he do. his ex has gone and agranged al this and from wat i have asked one of my friends there is ment to be contact from CSA to even figure out the situation b4 any payments r even calculated.
he used to have the kids 7 nights a fornight and then all of a sudden he isnt aloud to have them and then this letter somes it seems a little sus.
i had a quick look on the CSA website and from wat i have found the amount of time he was having them is classed as shared care so he could clam half of their ftb if he wanted to and wat would that mean for the csa payments would that mena he wouldnt pay any at all of just a very reduced rate.
it's all complex with ftb and csa. if he was having the kids 50/50 then yes, he is definitely entitled to FTB (dependant on his income - he may not get the same amount as the mother). CS would be calculated by taking into account the amount of time he has the children, his income, her income etc. it's not a simple calculation.
if he has previously agreed to have money deducted from his wages for CS, any arrears would be added to that as money he owes. my guess is that she has contacted them to say that he no longer has the children at all from X date, so the amount of CS has increased based on him not having care of them
does he have a court order/parenting plan in regards to their arrangement (50/50 time)? if not, he needs to attend mediation to arrange a parenting plan so that there is a WRITTEN agreement in regards to shared care. for one, it allows him to claim the FTB that he is entitled to. for another, it stops her being narky and witholding care from him for whatever reason. he can contact the Family Relationships Advice Line for info on this. you can contact on his behalf for advice too - but can't make appointments etc. if he arranges mediation and she doesn't attend, he can go to court and get court orders in place for care as she hasn't attended mediation and stuff.
in the mean time - contact FAO re shared care. he should be claiming FTB for the time he has the kids. he can claim retrospectively if he wishes - he'll have to provide a diary showing what nights he has had the kids in care. if he does this, and she has been claiming 100% care, a debt will be raised against her. a lot of people won't do a retrospective claim to keep the peace - but he IS entitled to it so can do it if he wants. make sure he keeps a diary of all the time the kids are in care. any contact he has had with her in regards to care (so he was supposed to pick them up at x time but she contacted to say he couldn't and things like that)
contact CSA to query HOW the arrears came about. was it because of a shared care issue? or was it because his income is higher than he'd estimated and he now owes extra. get that sorted out. if he is a little wary of dealing with these offices, he can ring up and identify himself and get you to speak to understand it a bit for him. i have done this with family to help them out
if the extra payment is going to leave him in financial hardship being $40, then he needs to say something and see if he can negotiate a smaller repayment over a longer time.
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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