CSA1 Maintenance Assessment

A question about : CSA1 Maintenance Assessment

Hi all, I'm new to this forum and would appreciate any advice.

After 6yrs of hearing nothing from CSA, we have today received a maintenance assessment on CS1. All the boxes in the assessment say Ј0.00 except the boxes that say Maintenance Needed, Income After deductions, Disposable Income and Protected Income Level.

Should I be able to see how they worked out the assessment and what figures they used to get the amount due?

Any advice would be helpful as we feel that the amount they have us to pay for a 18yr old (who is working) a wee bit high.

Thank you in advance.

Best answers:

• You can ring and ask for a clerical breakdown which will list all the calculations, but it may take a while to arrive.
  Unfortunately in our case the amount we pay on CSA 1 is double the amount we would pay if we were on CSA 2. The other reason the assessment may be high is if arrears have been added to the calculation.
  The CSA 1 calcuation does take into account things like your housing costs and pension contributions, so make sure the figures include these. There is also an allowance for any children living in your household. It can also allow for travel to work costs for you if you travel a distance to go to work, I'm not sure what the lowest mileage is for that, hopefully someone more in the know might help you out with that.
  Also, you only continue to pay maintenance if Child Benefit is being paid. Child benefit is only paid if the child is doing non-advanced education like NVQ level 3 or below. If the child is doing a further education course or working ( not on an an apprenticeship NVQ level 3 or below) then CB is no longer payable therefore CSA is no longer payable. You can ask the CSA to do a benefit check to see if CB is being paid to the parent with care, if not then you are not liable for maintenance, and the CSA will review the case.
  There are a couple of people on here that are willing to do a CSA1 calculation for people if you are happy to send them the figures.
• Thank you 13Kent. Do you know who would be able to do a calculation for me?
  We have received another breakdown but it only shows some figures and not all. Also does anyone know what the "total child allowance" amount is in the maintenance needed section?
  My brain is well and truly frazzled!
• CSA1 is very complicated to check against your specific circumstances. NACSA have an assessment checking service which you may think is worth the cost (we have used it several times).
  It is important to check that they haven't imposed a penalty assessment. I think the Category A is the type that is imposed if they say you haven't provided them with the information they requested, but someone else can perhaps give you more information about that.
  Re the information that Kent gave you, the cost of travel to work or to have contact with your children would only be taken into account if you applied for and were granted a variation - and even then it doesn't make a huge difference. As far as I am aware the calculation only takes account of your natural children in the initial calculation, any step children living with you would only be considered in the protected income element of the calculation.
  My husband was on CSA 1 until last month, so we have years of experience of trying to make sense of it. It is certainly worth getting your assessment checked, my husband always had to challenge inaccuracies when he got a new assessment.
• Confused as to why it is a CSA1 assessment. New assessments under this scheme should have ended eons ago (unless there is already a CSA1 for another child maybe).
• It was a case opened in 2000. We had been paying but hadn't heard anything for 6yrs until recently.
• Does anyone know what protected income is made up of on CS1? Thanks.
• The protected income on CSA1 is what you would get on J.S.A. plus your housing costs ie mortgage or rent payments, the protected income does not cover your council tax, they will tell you that council tax is included in the protected income but its not!! the current rate for J.S.A. is Ј72.40 aweek