Re1201 - Maintenance payments: Child Support Agency Assessments

The existence of a legal agreement for maintenance does not prevent either party to it from applying for a CSA assessment, even if the agreement itself purports to forbid this. If a CSA assessment is made on such an application, the part of the existing agreement relating to periodic payments to or for the maintenance of the child concerned becomes unenforceable from the effective date of the CSA assessment. In practice the CSA will not, at present, make an assessment in respect of children whose maintenance is already provided for under a legally binding agreement unless some state benefits are paid in respect of the child, see Re1200.

If

• a CSA assessment sets an effective date prior to the date the assessment is actually made and
• payments for the retrospective period set by the assessment are made before the date of that assessment and
• an earlier legal agreement was in force in respect of the same child and the agreement continues to exist and would be enforced but for the CSA assessment being made and
• a claim is made that relief should be allowed for payments made for the retrospective period as if still under the agreement.

See Re1196, Re1197 and Re1205.