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hi there i was wondering if anyone can give me a bit of advice on child maintenance, i applied for child support in 2002 for my two sons who were 10 and 8 then, i never received a penny but i had another child in 2006 (different dad) and the child support paid me for him from i applied, the last four months i received £43 of them and thats more than i usually get so i rang them and asked why i received more and they told me it was for my eldest two, i actually laughed at the girl on the phone as my eldest two are now 18 and 21, they said i was on the old scheme with them but because i had another child in 2006 that they moved me onto the new scheme so i would be receiving payments from their dad, he was paying me £43 a month, so i know he sin a full time, well paid job, and i knew where he worked so i informed the csa, they worked out that he should be paying £28 a week plus £52 in arrears which isnt a lot because it was for so long they only started it fron 2007 at £2.50 for a year then doubling that every year till they got to £28, to cut a long story short, my 21 year has home but i was still being paid for my 18 year old whos 19 in sept, i have had 3 payments of the £43 and i am due my first payment of the £79 but my 18 year hasnt got into college this year so my child benefit and all will be stopping, does my ex have to still pay the arrears or will i loose out on this one, any help at all would be greatly appreciated, thank you xx
Thank you so much for your advice Louise, i just hate the thoughts of him getting away with it, especially as my son will be going out to try and find work and could make use of it until he finds something, he thinks that once my son finishes college that hes got away with it and thats it, his solicitor told him to pay those few months so it looks good on him with the csa x
Good luck with it all, chris 
Thank you Louise xx
The CSA would seem to have a new regime in place in respect of arrears according to this document published in January 2013.
Essentially this document lays out a strategy to prioritise arrears owed to parents for child maint including that
1/ Absent parents that are employed and pay tax by PAYE .. ie they are employed should be priioritised for debt recovery because the cost to the csa of undertaking recovery action against them is relatively low and chances of success are relatively high. ie it is cheap and effective.
2/ Child Maint should be recovered and paid with a relatively high level of prriority if the child to whom it pertains is still party to an ongoing maintenece assesment ie if the child is living at home and under 19/18. ie maint enforcement should be prioritised when the child will directly benefit from a successful outcome.
In essence it seems to me that the CSA should be making every effort to reclaim arrears as above and therefore it seems logiccal and a reasonable demand that the csa should be applying the maximum level of deductions via Deductions of Earnings Orders on absent parents who have arrears that wonmt be paid off according to the existing payment schedule by the time the child leaves home at 18/19.
IME the peopel at the CSA doing the assesments seem to be reluctant to do their jobs properly. Allowing arrears to be repais over 2 years whenever a change of circumstances occuers .. in effect rewarding parents that dont pay with extended terms and ignoring the fact that they have chosen to run uop arrears, continue to ignore paying arrears and refused to make voluntary patyments whilst waiting for new calculations.
They are sort of given a loan with a never ending payment reschedule becasue at any time a reassement is done, arrears repayments are reset to two years even when not doing so would still see the absent parent paying less than 40% of their salary via DDO for child maint plus arrears of child maint.
Seems to me that people have a reasonable reason to appeal if arrears are not scheduled to be repaid by the time the child gets to 18/19 and the absent parent is not currently being required to pay 40%....
If there are arrears remaining after the child reaches 18/19 then the CSA will treat those arrears with a lower level of priority and it is entirely reasonable to expect an even worse level of service and attention...so make a fuss while you still have a case that should be a higher priority for arrears recovery.
Thank you for those comments, Stan, it seems to me that we should all stand up and shout as loudly as possible to get what we are entitled to.
I have asked the CSA several times and they've always said they'd recover the arrears no matter how old the children are then. :-)
Thank you for your comments Stan, i have been torturing them and as my 19 year didnt get into his course i had to close my case, regarding the arrears csa has sorted out that he has to pay £75 a week to clear them which i wouldnt mind, this was to start 6 weeks ago and i have received that in a month, not weekly as it was supposed to be so i have been on the phone again and they are trying to sort it out so hopefully it will be sorted soon, but you are so right in what you said, its like its lower priority as the child has reached 18/19 xx
I believe that arrears should continue to be paid..if they have decided that he owes the money then he needs to pay it off. I know a lady who continued to receive these arrears after the child had left home! Of course, ongoing payments stop once a child is 18 or leaves education and it is only the arrears that need to be paid off.
There have also been incidents where a child who goes on to University (and therefore is past receiving support through the CSA) takes out a private lawsuit against a parent for continued maintenance during the university years, though that is quite unusual.
We have a CSA expert on the boards and if you think things are not going to plan then do email her by clicking here as she is the one with all the info!