Child Mainentance / CSA etc

[Amethyst]

Anyone have this and know how it works ?

What I am wondering is if you 'opt out' of child maintenance application formally and the non resident parent NRP pays you directly each week - how would that impact on your benefits/child tax credits etc. Are you 'allowed' to do that ?

From working it out going the CSA route NRP would pay £72 a week, of which I would see £10 on top of my benefits.

So if he pays me £30 a week (cause opt out reduces my IS by £20 a week) direct, I get the same amount each week, and he can still afford to live, pay the bills/mortgage etc just.

I do want to do it right, but I don't wish him any harm financially and he is looking after my interests in the house / joint bills etc.

The Child Maintenance Bonus will not be available to parents in the new child support scheme. Instead, parents with care on Income Support will keep up to £10 a week of any child maintenance paid for their children. This will be called the Child Maintenance Premium.


Under the new child support scheme, introduced on 3 March 2003 for new cases, the child maintenance premium allows for up to the first £10 of child maintenance paid by the non-resident parent to be ignored in the calculation of your Income Support. Non-child Maintenance payments are taken into account in full.