Child Support Rules
Child support is a certain fixed amount that is paid by one of the parents to the other, generally the one who undertakes the custody of the child for the financial support and good upbringing of their common child. This is a common situation that parents have to face following a divorce or separation. Also known as alimony, this amount that is transferred from one parent to the other in order to support the child in the best possible way from the combined incomes/wealth of both the parents.

Keeping in mind the benefits of the child various laws have determined different rules for child support payments that completely depends on the circumstances of both the parents. Determining the right amount for child support payments is a difficult task which is why the child support law is very complex in UK and is reviewed from time to time. As the non resident parent has a legal duty to pay up for the well being of the child, whether or not he has a contact with the child, the government ensures that the other parent receives a regular income from the non resident parent.

As people are not much aware of the child support rules and there is no substitute for consulting a family law solicitor at the time of the divorce or separation in order to get advice about this, parents generally either work on mutual consent by means of court order by take help from the CSA Child Support Agency. For the parents who pursue support from the CSA, the agency calculates a fixed amount depending on the information provided by the parents that should be paid regularly. This amount depends on factors like salary, income support, allowances, any other children from new relationships etc. In addition to all other rules, one of the most important CSA rules is obtaining relevant information from the non-resident parent. If the non-resident parents provide irrelevant information CSA applies a default figure of child support which results in paying more CSA payments than otherwise.

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CSA Complaints
Child Support Agency (CSA) works to provide excellent services while handling child poverty. But the reason that evaluations based on the same financial criteria can give rise to different results, depending on which rules the case is examined under can lead to inactions instead of actions of the Child Support Agency. If you are disagreeing with the CSA services then you can make complaints.

A complaint is a request to CSA to legitimately review the decision. You can make complaints regarding CSA delays, wrong assessments of your earnings by CSA, incorrect application of law, CSA has overlooked relevant details in making the decision, has not considered all the facts etc. If you have CSA complaints concerning the CSA decisions then follow the following steps to resolve it:

• It is recommended that you first contact CSA and confirm from customer service officer whether you can object to a CSA decision or not. If the CSA decision is objectionable then customer service officer would try to solve the problem.
  
  
• If you feel that customer service officer has not settled your complaint to your satisfaction level then you can send it to Complaints Resolution Team. You can contact the CSA Complaints Resolution Team by calling the phone number or writing to them, or by filling in the online complaint form.
  
  
• If you are still not satisfied with the decisions made by the Complaints Resolution Team then you can contact Complaints Review Team.
  
  
• If you have followed this complaints procedure and have been unable to resolve a complaint then you can contact the Independent Case Examiner(ICE). ICE is as an independent body to deal with complaints about the CSA.
  

The Independent Case Examiner

ICE is a free service and is not a part of CSA. ICE will only consider the case if it is sure that CSA has dealt with the complaint, complaint has undergone each stage of the CSA complaint process and it has been contacted within six months of getting a final reply from Complaints Review Team. The Independent Case Examiner can't consider a complaint if:

• Child Support Agency has not been given the chance to resolve the matter first.
  
  
• It is more than six months since the CSA's final reply.
  
  
• The complaint is about legislation that is it includes the amount of the maintenance calculation.
  
  
• The complaint is the subject of legal proceedings like judicial review.
  

CSA takes all complaints very gravely and is aware that it doesn't always reach the right decisions. CSA values your feedback and it is due to this reason that it is improving its services and processes every year. You can log on to http://www.cv-service.org/csa.htm to get information regarding child support payments, CSA complaints, CSA calculator, child maintenance, CSA reform and more.

Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission
The Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission (CMEC) offers information and support in addition to an effective enforcement service for child maintenance options. It is responsible for taking charge of the payment of child maintenance. CMEC is a non-departmental public body with prime objective to ensure that children maintenance arrangements are in place.

Thousands of children suffer as thousands of absent parents neglect their duties. CMEC provides financial support to children who live with a lone parent or legal guardian. Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission create policy and information for the child maintenance system. The financial arrangement for child maintenance can be provided through the statutory scheme or can also be arranged privately between the child's parents.

Main functions of CMEC can be categorized as:

- It promotes financial responsibility that parents have for their children and hence ensures that non-resident parents acknowledge the importance of their child maintenance contribution. Hence CMEC aims to ensure that parents living apart understand their responsibilities and take appropriate action to provide financial help to their children.

- It provides information and support on the different Child Maintenance options that are available to parents. This can include offering support online, on the telephone or in-person. Issues like housing, legal and financial concerns can be discussed in confidence and can help provide additional understanding of the way child maintenance works.

- It provides an efficient statutory child maintenance service with an improved assessment, collection and Child Support Enforcement processes. In addition to informing the non-resident parent of the amount due, and the dates when payments is expected, both the court and Child Support Agency can make the non-resident parent's employer deduct maintenance payments directly from the earnings.

The CSA is a Child Support Agency that enforces regulated financial payment and hence provides vital resources for many lone parent families. The child maintenance payment is paid by the non-resident parent to the resident, or parent with care, after the CSA has examined the information and concerning income provided by the non-resident parent's employers. CSA reform will trace the non-resident parent and issue payment instructions in case some parents evade payment of the support fund for their child. Child Support Agency provides a maintenance service where parents with care can register an application for assistance. For enforcement of child maintenance orders, steps like freezing of accounts, early sale of property or prison for parents in extreme cases can be there in case of violation or refusal to pay child maintenance.

If you need information and support options on how to arrange maintenance, and select among various private or statutory options for making arrangements best suited to the circumstances you can always relay on Child Support Agency. You can log on to http://www.cv-service.org/csa.htm to know more about the Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission (CMEC) and related information.

CSA Assessments
Children are our future and they need to be kept safe and developed in the best way so as to ensure the development of our society and nation. They should be brought up well and developed under all circumstances. Especially when a relationship breaks up, it becomes most important to safeguard children's futures. Part of this is done can be by deciding and agreeing child maintenance payments.

Child maintenance payments also termed as CSA Payments are the contributions which the non-resident parent makes toward the child. This payment is made to the "person/parent with care", who is the person with whom the child lives, (usually the other parent). The two parties involved can mutually agree on level and conditions of payment. If not it is then decided by legal means.

Governments of UK have an executive agency named Child Support Agency (CSA), which is part of Department of Work and Pensions and solely aims at implementing the Child Support Act and subsequent legislation. The CSA performs two fold function of determining the amount for the child support to be paid and collecting and transversal of the payment from the non-resident parent to the person with care.

Prior to march 3, 2003 old method of child maintenance calculation was used but now CSA assessments are made via new method. Old method of the CSA assessment used a "complex formula of up to 108 pieces of information". In it firstly total child maintenance was calculated based on the child's age then after subtracting various allowances, the net income of non-resident is estimated and at last based on the collected data, it is determined what segment of the designed maintenance was to be paid by the non-resident parent, based on their income. The new method for CSA assessment is simplified and does not take into consideration complex calculations as before.

According to it the amount of the child maintenance or child support payments to be made is a fixed percentage of the non-resident parent income. It is fixed as 15% for one child, 20% for two, and 25% for three or more. If non-resident parent has children in their current family, then reduction in the amount payable as child maintenance is made. Payments are reduced by 15% if they have one child if they had one, 20% if they had two, and 25% for three or more. While the old method used computer system called Child Support Computer System (CSCS), the Child Support 2(CS2) was introduced for the new CSA Assessment.

This CSA Assessment article provides you with the information about how much child maintenance you might be asked to pay or receive based on the rules for the current scheme. For up-to-date information on Child Support Payments, CSA Assessments, a CSA Calculator, Child Support Help, CSA Complaints, CSA Delays etc log on to http://www.cv-service.org/csa.htm

CSA Advice
All children deserve to be loved and cared in all ways and parents hold the duty to love them and support their children financially to cover their living and medical expenses. It is therefore necessary to provide the child with the life style and education so as to ensure their overall development, especially in case of non-resident parents. A non-resident parent is the one who does not live with their child / children and holds social, ethical as well as legal responsibilities to contribute to their welfare and development. This can be overseen by the Child Support Agency. The Child support Agency (CSA) is a UK government executive agency that deals with two fold functions of calculating CSA Payments i.e. how much child maintenance is due, as they have with powers to collect and transfer it from a non-resident parent to the person charged with the care of the child. Child Maintenance or Child Support payments is made from a non-resident parent towards the monetary cost of raising their children, paid to the person with whom the child lives, (usually the other parent), and referred to as "person/parent with care".

It is immensely important to seek CSA advice before filling any CSA forms to be aware of any rights and to have exact knowledge of what to and what not to write on any documents the CSA ask you to complete. Good CSA advice provides you with all the necessary details you need to know and keep in mind when the CSA is involved in the case, such as not giving the CSA your home, work or mobile number or else you would need written evidence for any correspondence. Insist to deal via letters or recorded meetings.

Use a CSA Calculator to know how much child maintenance is likely to be due. Take care not to provide the CSA with your bank details. Don't make any payments directly to your ex, always pay the CSA. Make it through Giro paying in slips. Also, make sure that you send the CSA letters through recorded delivery and keep copies of all letters to / from the CSA as evidence. Also inform and instruct your employers not to pass any information via phone to the CSA if they contact them and information should always be requested and passed by legal letters.

In case you have problems with your CSA case, don't ring them yourself as it will be likely to bear no fruit. You can visit your local MP in person who can deal with the CSA on your behalf using his special powers. In the case that your ex-partner starts working, you can ask him / her to withdraw from the CSA system and adopt for the new working families tax credits. Also, try to find out how the CSA system works and learn about rules that you can use for your own good.

It is responsibility of the CSA to ensure that parents who live apart from their children contribute financially to them by providing child support. Child Support help is essential for getting a fair and good deal.