My client receives sporadic CSA payments. I asked for a revision of her hb and ctb claims to remove the CSA payments from the calculation as she was not receiving these regularly. The council agreed to do this and amended her claim accordingly. They asked her to let them know about any subsequent CSA payments she received, and she duly notified them when she received one weekly payment and some arrears a short time later. So the council promptly reviewed her claim again to treat her as receving weekly CSA payments from the date that they had previously removed them from!!

My understanding (based on info. in CPAG) is that irregular CSA maintenance payments should be treated as capital not income for hb/ctb. Unfortunately CPAG does not provide a reference, and I've checked the hb/ ctb regs. but can't find anything relating to this point. Can anyone help me out on this?

Cheers

Sara

Was an answer ever found to this?

I have a very similare case.

Thank you

The general rule, supported by myriad CDs, is that income must be attributed to the period it is in respect of; unless legislation deems otherwise (such as for Tax Credits).

Payments by the CSA are invariably for a specific period - whether current, or a past period. Where it is possible to identify the period such payments are in respect of, an LA should normally take the payment(s) into account for the period(s) in question.

If your client has only received one payment for one week (leaving aside the arrears), there is no basis for the LA to continue taking into account income not actually being received (at least not in these circumstances).

BUT, if arrears are subsequently paid by the CSA for a period the LA has already assessed as nil income, the LA is entitled to reassess that prior period.

Where it has proved impossible to identify the past period for CSA arrears, only then should arrears be treated as capital. Of interest, the CSA are terrible at being able to identify periods to which arrears are attributable.

Regards.