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Neutral Citation Number:	2013 UKUT 407 AAC
Reported Number:
File Number:	CCS 738 2012
Appellant:	JW
Respondent:	SSWP & MC & JC (CSM)
Judge/Commissioner:	Judge P Gray
Date Of Decision:	07/08/2013
Date Added:	23/08/2013
Main Category:	Child support
Main Subcategory:	calculation of income
Secondary Category:	Child support
Secondary Subcategory:	tribunal practice
Notes:	Reported as [2014] AACR 8. Child support – assessment of income – duty of tribunal to enquire into accuracy of non-resident parent’s declared income The appellant was the parent with care. Her former partner was assessed as liable to make child support maintenance payments of £14 weekly for their son based on earnings of £19,000 per annum. Both parents applied to the Child Support Agency about that decision, the father claiming that his circumstances had since changed and the appellant that the declared income was less than his actual earnings, inconsistent with his lifestyle and failed to take account of all of his income from various businesses interests. The Agency’s revised decision was to increase the payments to £179 weekly, later reduced to £119.50 (following a child support assessment for another child from a separate relationship). The father appealed against both decisions. The primary issue before the First-tier Tribunal (F-tT) was whether there was a contract of employment entitling the father to earnings of over £100,000 in addition to his declared income. The F-tT found there was no such contract and that, in the absence of an application for a variation by the mother, it could take no further action. Held, allowing the appeal, that: 1. the F-tT’s approach was overly narrow and, following its finding that there was no contract of employment, its task as an inquisitorial tribunal was to ask itself whether or not that finding reflected the truth of the father’s financial position. Further enquiry was warranted given the allegations of his expensive lifestyle, his involvement with several different businesses and the fact that his declared earnings were significantly less than average male earnings (paragraphs 26 to 27); 2. it was a misconception that when dealing with a formula case the F-tT was confined to the declared income in the absence of a variation application. The position was more flexible and the decisions in CCS/12420/1996, CCS/3368/1997 and R(CS) 3/01 were approved. The Court of Appeal had adumbrated this wider approach – that decision-makers may decline to be constrained by the figures submitted to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and are able, without the intervention of the variation provisions, to ensure that the net income figures reflect the true picture, including under or undeclared income were appropriate (see Gray v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and James [2012] EWCA Civ 1412; [2013] AACR 5) (paragraphs 28 to 33). The judge set aside the decisions of the First-tier Tribunal and remitted the appeals to a differently constituted tribunal to be decided in accordance with her directions.
Decision(s) to Download:	[2014] AACR 8bv.doc