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Questions on new cms

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happyagain
Posted by
Platinum Member

30 Jul 14 #440888 by happyagain

Topic started by happyagain

Just wondering if anyone was familiar with the new cms and could answer 2 questions for me.
- if a family have payments set up under the csa (from around 2010), can either party request to move to the new direct pay, or only the person that opened the case in the first case?
- if a new case with the cms is already in arrears on direct pay, can the recipient of the money insist on moving to collections? (This one is for a friend who has been told that as there is an intention to repay the arrears over 2 years then the case will remain as direct pay).

Thanks in advance

rubytuesday
Moderator

30 Jul 14 #440890 by rubytuesday

Reply from rubytuesday

child maintenance Options are the people to ask - you can call them free on 0800 988 0988 and visit their micro-site on Wikivorce here - www.wikivorce.com/divorce/Child-Maintenance.html

Child Maintenance Options
Moderator

20 Aug 14 #442494 by Child Maintenance Options

Reply from Child Maintenance Options

Hello Happyagain

Neither party can request a transfer from the Child Support Agency (CSA) to the Child Maintenance Service.

The person who opened the case originally can close it and then open a new case with the Child Maintenance Service, however there would be a waiting period between cases of 13 weeks, so there would be a loss of maintenance payments involved.

To answer your second question, as long as the arranged payments, including arrears, are being made, the case would stay with Direct Pay. It would only move to Collect and Pay if there were missed payments which had to be enforced.

You can find more information about the Child Maintenance Service and the CSA here www.gov.uk/child-maintenance.

For more details about the different ways that maintenance can be set up, you can contact Child Maintenance Options, www.cmoptions.org.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have a web application, ''Sorting out Separation''. It aims to make it much easier for separating and separated parents (and childless couples) to find the support they need, when and where they need it, and encourages them to collaborate on a range of issues. The link is www.cmoptions.org/en/sortingoutseparation/index.asp.

Regards

Sarah

lukeskywalker
Senior Member

20 Aug 14 #442496 by lukeskywalker

Reply from lukeskywalker

The short answer is the CSA will eventually contact all cases in due course to transfer to the new system. I spoke to them and they said in reality its going to take months.

What they also said is if your paying the maintenance you don''t need the other parents consent to move to direct pay system when the eventually contact you. However, you do need to be able to receive the bank payment details from the receiving parent, as the CSA wont give you this information.

So when that time comes, I will send an email to the receiving parent asking for their bank details. If the details are not duly received, it''s not my problem.

What maybe a problem is if I don''t pay the arrears. So basically all the CSA will be doing in the future is issuing a payment plan to follow.

Fiona
Platinum Member

20 Aug 14 #442541 by Fiona

Reply from Fiona

The plan was always to close and transfer cases under the CSA 2003 scheme to the new 2012 scheme over three years rather than months. There was a briefing paper for MPs earlier this year confirming the intention to transfer the cases by 31 December 2017. There are some exceptions where cases won''t be transferred - cases which are are due to close before then (eg because the youngest qualifying child will have reached the age of 20 by the end of the transition period) and arrears only cases.

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

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