csa allowances in maintenance

[bossspike22]

Hi, can anyone help? my brothers partner of 14 years has up and left him with their 2 kids age 12 and 8, he has to pay the mortgage until the house is sold, joint life insurance premium, council tax arrears and buildings insurance! he is skint ans csa wants �180 per month, should he be getting a reduction because he is paying her liabilities? He is in the house, they are not married and has been told he has to get parental rights. Anyone any idea how long and how much this will cost. He is named on the birth certificates. solicitor says he won't get legal aid but the website for legal aid calculates he will �125 per hour solicitor is charging, he earns �330 per week. help!!!!!

[lawsanass]

Hi, where is the wife now? Does she work? He could go to the mortgage lender and explain the house is being sold, they may be able to come to an arrangement and suspend mortgage payments until its sold and then its paid out of the equity, that way the profit is paying the mortgage and if she was entitled to half the profit in the house its her profit thats paying the morgage too, is that clear? its hard to explain. The CSA has strict rules about what outgoings they can take into consideration, and I would think they would have to put the ones you mention into the calculation. Has he had a deduction of earnings order put on him i.e. have to CSA applied direct to his employer to take the �180 from his wages and give to them? If not, he should write to the CSA and state all his outgoings etc, and ask for a reassesment, the paperwork alone should buy him some time. With regard to parental responsibility... yes he will have to apply, fathers only have this as an automatic right when they are married to the mother, stupid, I know, but then the law is an ass. It should not cost a lot as its a straight forward request to the court. Parental responsibility is not all its cracked up to be....It just means that issuses such as religion, schooling, operations etc are supposed to be jointly agreed but in practice its not worth the paper its written on. If she wanted to change schools for example and your brother disagreed, she would do it and then he would have to go to court to get it sorted, do you see what I mean. Legal aid is also calculated including assets, such as his house, so if he owns his own then there is little chance he is eligible for it. His local C.A.B will be able to give him lots of helpful info

[Ethel]

It is essential that he gets parental responsibility. Worst case scenario is mother dies, father does not have parental responsibility so has no say in what happens to the children.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/ParentsRig hts/DG_4002954

[bossspike22]

Thanks for the info, he went to his lender and explained but lender (alliance & liester) said he had to pay if he didn't it would be seen as default and would effect his credit rating in the future. he has signed csa papers for the direct debit to be paid as he is sick of ex telling his kids he won't pay for them, she started a private claim with csa, she works 16 hours and is getting over �500 per month tax credit etc. she has been very fast in doing what she has done as she only left on 1/2/08

[bossspike22]

i should add the house is not on the market at this exact time as solicitors have to exchange consent on behalf of both parties first hopefully it will happen soon. his son has been diagnosed with adhd but my brother doesn't agree he believes his ex has a short patience span and it suits her to blame son for everything, it is such a shame, she hits him and has even taken a belt to him, she puts him on a bus to school on his own! she won't give him to my brother (she gets lots of money for him) doctor called in social services on her but they are so very slow. what a mess. god help my nephew

[lawsanass]

I feel so sorry for your situation, i have many friends in a similar position. I think the only way is to be awkward and obstinate. create difficulties at every junction. Cancel D/D to CSA that will take a while to get sorted. Go to higher management at B/S. They are generally helpful, its not in their interests not to be. Tell him not to give up fighting his corner at the first hurdle. Unfortunately we all have to resort to dirty tactics to get to a fair end. As long as the kids dont want for anything of course. Perhaps he can just have them to stay lots, surely the mother could do with some 'me' time, thatway it looks like hes being really helpful, best of luck