Child Maintenance

[Jodo]

Hope someone who has been in the same position as us can help My husband has a soon to be 14 year old daughter from a previous relationship. Unfortunately her mother is a complete narcissist who has alienated her from her father despite court orders to the contrary. My husband had regular contact ( every weekend ) from when she was 2 years old to aged 9. Although she has aways been volatile her mother was happy for contact this and his daughter loved seeing her father . This all changed when he met me and got a life for himself instead of being at the beck and call and being financially extorted by her mother. She also tried to extort money from him but that's another story and courts found in his favour. (Just to paint the picture). He has always paid child maintenance, in fact overpaid and also bought other things for his daughter. To the extent that if he was off work sick and paid SSP he would take out a payday loan to make sure his daughter was catered for. Unfortunately he was made redundant 12 months ago and could no longer pay the amount he was paying. Mother went to CSA but as he claimed JSA for 6 months their assessment reflected this . Needless to say the mother was not happy. Now that JSA (C) has expired my husbands only income is a small pension , a zero hours contract job which provides work less than one day per month at minimum wage and a few hours evening work at a local music venue.( On average 3 nights every 2 weeks on a self employed basis. ) All declared to the Inland Revenue. Has anyone else experienced the problems we are having with the CSA? Horrendous situation where , despite providing full evidence of his current incomes which suggests a payment of £100 per month according to their website , they are demanding over twice this amount and are due to take this , plus arrears from his very small pension. We have been to our MP, written letters of complaint and made numerous phone calls. Despite this and asking for a reconsideration they are insisting he pays the £200+ plus payment towards ' arrears'.We are already sinking financially and this is going to kill us. CSA has not provided any figures as to how they made this calculation despite us asking and we just don't know which way to turn. What can we do? The first payment is due to come out of his pension next month . PLEASE HELP . I am crying writing this

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Jodo

Welcome to the parents’ discussion board and thank you for your post. I am sorry that I was not able to respond to you sooner.

I am very sorry to hear of the difficulties that you and your husband are experiencing in relation to child maintenance payments. I can see that this is causing you a great deal of distress and you are suffering financial hardship. Unfortunately, your query is outsider our remit, we provide advice to families where there is a social worker involved with their child which you do not mention.

You have already sought support from your MP and made complaints, with no success so far. However, I hope that the following organisations may be able to offer you the advice and guidance that you need:

Moneyhelper
Citizens Advice Bureau
Gingerbread .

I hope that you are able to find a solution to your current difficulties.

Best wishes

Suzie