Child maintenance when self-employed

Gilly

Gilly

Gilly

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I read an article or 60 second guide somewhere on a Gov UK website that said any self-employed Father needed to pay X% of the company turnover.

I now cannot find it, and am worried that I dreamed it!

My wife's ex is self-employed, runs two businesses, has a van with decals for each business both bought last year, bought a brand new car last year too, records company profit as nil as it is all cash-in-hand and therefore he claims benefits and pays £5 a week for his son in maintenance. When asked if he feels this amount of cash is enough to bring his son up, he simply laughs.

Until 3 years ago he paid £150pcm, he dropped that to £100pcm with no notice at that point, and then when his daughter was born nearly 2 years ago he dropped that to £21.60pcm. Included in the original agreement he had also agreed to pay for school shoes, winter coat, uniform, etc. That has all also stopped.

Is there really no legislation for self employed parents that no longer live with their children?
 
She's been to CSA and they've 'reassessed' and state that £5 a week is the right amount for him to pay, as his only source of income is benefits.

After two years of being self-employed :/

How does the CSA work out earnings from
self-employment?
If the non-resident parent is self-employed, we usually work
out their average weekly earnings for the most recent tax year.
If we can’t, perhaps because they have only recently started
self-employed work, we use details of the gross income of the
business – this means all the money it has earned. To work out
the non-resident parent’s earnings, we take away from the gross
income of the business:
• any reasonable expenses paid to run the business (not
including capital spending or business entertainment
expenses), and
• VAT (value added tax).
Click to expand...

Just found this. I take this to mean that anything that goes through the books (which still isn't everything of course) is used to calculate the payment, after reasonable expenses (which wouldn't be new vans every year, etc. I would think) and VAT. Am I reading that right?
 
What a disgusting man he is!

I know that doesn't help but I felt I had to say it.

This PDF might help you on page 23.

CSA PDF guide

A handy net mums post on the same issue here, seems it's a common issue declaring nil income.
 
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If they are self employed, it is easy to rearrange things to avoid CSA.

They can assess where the lifestyle doesn't reflect the declared income, but you might as well try to get blood from a stone.

Self employment is one of the cracks in the system - the same assessment that protects a legitimate business also allows someone to hide their income.

Any voluntary agreement can be stopped at any time and a court ordered maintenance can be reassessed (up or down) by CSA after a year.
 
anticonscience said:
What a disgusting man he is!
Click to expand...

I haven't covered the half of it :(

He hasn't seen his 10 year old son (my son now, actually, though he tried to stop him calling me Daddy when he was younger) since October. His birthday was in November and my son called him and asked him both on his birthday and at Xmas if he would see him, and he said he couldn't come over because he was busy.

The last time he was scheduled to see him but never showed we left him with his Grandma and Grandad and went to the German beer market, he'd said he had a wedding that day, but was out on the lash with his mates instead.

He lives less than 20 miles away.
 
There's simply no excuse for that, says a lot about a person when they treat their flesh and blood like that, falling out with a partner and not loving them anymore can happen, but treating your own like that is deplorable.

I hope you and your wife can extract everything you are owed out of him.
 
Moses said:
Devil's Advocate mode :o. if you consider this kid yours, with him legally even being so, and you're in a lasting relationship with the mother... so for all intents and purposes it's a normal family unit/you've basically replaced the natural father... why do you want/need his money and involvement? I mean, as a family unit you're no worse off than the norm, no?
Click to expand...

They could be better off if the guy was paying his fair share, that's reason enough imo.
 
Moses said:
Devil's Advocate mode :o. if you consider this kid yours, with him legally even being so, and you're in a lasting relationship with the mother... so for all intents and purposes it's a normal family unit/you've basically replaced the natural father... why do you want/need his money and involvement? I mean, as a family unit you're no worse off than the norm, no?
Click to expand...

From my own personal perspective I view it in much the same way you do, right up until I see the upset it causes my child. He is just getting to the age where he realises the lies and deceit from his Father are just that.

Without explaining what a **** he is before time, you can't ready a child for that. He's really struggling to come to terms with it. The money aspect is of course entirely separate to that. Whilst the main concern is for the welfare of the child, you have a 'man' here that tells his son the man funding him and bringing him up on a full time basis is not his Daddy, despite the child wanting to call him that, that claims benefits whilst working cash in hand and evading tax (that we all have to fund) and that intentionally causes stress across the whole picture by not being in certain places when agreed, not meeting promises as to when he'll see his son, etc. He was 7 when his Father started messing him around, he's now 10 and is coming to the realisation that he has a more important (to him) child now that he lives with. Not easy.

It also stresses the wife out no end, which means I get it in the neck from that too!
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Personally, I would be talking to HMRC, if only for the tax evasion.
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I've said much the same, but the wife is concerned that it would end up going to court and they would want our boy to bear witness to the work he does cash in hand, etc. He was always taking him out on jobs when he stayed with him.
 
Gilly said:
I've said much the same, but the wife is concerned that it would end up going to court and they would want our boy to bear witness to the work he does cash in hand, etc. He was always taking him out on jobs when he stayed with him.
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HMRC will do their own investigations, covertly if necessary. They will get all the evidence they need.

Even if your son did have useful evidence, it's highly unlikely they'd want a vulnerable 10 year old to give evidence in court. Seriously, I wouldn't worry about that.
 
Fair play to you Gilly for taking on the role as this kids father, sounds like he is lucky to have you.

As far as him avoiding any contributions to his son, I would say move on and forget about him. Maybe some day he will realize the opportunities he has missed out on and the hurt he has caused, by that time your son will probably be a man and will want nothing to do with him. His loss
 
deuse said:
If he is not legally your son I would keep out of it. Just be there for your Mrs and him.
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I agree. As long as you can support him and bring him up well then why would you need such a negative influence whether it be financial or otherwise in the child's life?
 
I'd be super cautious about appearing to grass the lads dad up even if he is a creepy loser, tbh I think its a good thing for a boy to look up to his dad for psychological reasons regarding his self image and it sounds like the "dad" will lie about the events to the son when he's a teenager also grandparents might be affected, just sayin like, tread carefully so to speak.

£5/10/15/20 a week annoying but not the end of the world, you have my sympathy and respect in the matter.
 
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