Ј1000 arrears at Ј5/week for 4 years?

A question about : Ј1000 arrears at Ј5/week for 4 years?

Hi

A friend is recipient of CSA, and the non-resident parent has built up arrears of over Ј1000.

They currently pay at a rate of Ј200/month, suggesting an income of around Ј1300/month.

The repayment they've negotiated with the CSA would push this to Ј220 per month, meaning they pay off the Ј1000 at a rate of Ј5 a week over 3.9 years.

Now it's pretty obvious that someone on Ј1300 a month isn't likely to suffer excessive financial hardship by paying more than an extra Ј10/month - it's not like he's on JSA. And he lives with his parents, so is hardly short of cash... So a couple of questions

1) how has he pulled this off, considering the CSA aims to pay it off over 2 years, and that Ј1000 isn't an excessive amount (I can understand Ј5000 May take longer to pay off)

2) is there any way to appeal this? Ј5 per week will leave the resident parent in relatively more hardship, considering they had to borrow money off friends to cover his lapsed payments

Surely there's no good reason the CSA have jumped past the usual 'up to 40% aiming to take it over a maximum 2 year period' which would still leave it as Ј240 per month... Hardly an excessive amount on that salary

Best answers:

• How can you possibly know that he won't suffer financial hardship? Clearly CSA have accepted the repayment arrangement and they wouldn't have done so without good reason.
• Because I know he spends more than that Ј10 on beer in a week? And does plenty of work on the side....
  Okay, a less 'I know the situation' question: is there any way to appeal the amount and ask for it to be independently reviewed? His situation seems to be the only one in question, surely they have to take both into account? Considering the resident parent has had to take loans to cover his lack of payment, earns half as much as he does and is paying for a house and child.....
  Is it a 'he's spoken to them, end of story' situation, or can she appeal? Because that repayment rate is no use to anybody - the original Ј200 a month would have helped support the child, Ј5 a week is no use to anybody