Can I extend the time to pay back CSA arrears?
May 21, 2010
I have been in dealings with the CSA now for nearly 14 years. At the start of the case I paid regular maintenance approx £34 of my measly £157 wage. When i left that particular employment things started to go wrong, eg when I started working at my new firm of which the CSA was informed an assessment was never done and so no maintenance was paid.
Suffice to say and cut story short I am now working again full time for the last five years with full information provided to the CSA regarding wages access times to my daughter etc and have amazingly amassed an arrears amount of give or take a few pounds £8000.
When my assesment was made 5 years ago it was agreed that due to circumstances, eg new wife and two young children now 7 and 9 that my weekly payments would be £38 regular payments + £7 towards the wapping arrears amount (later discovering that £8000 arrears is a drop in the ocean compared to some cases). Anyhow due to recent financial events my firm decided that to conserve jobs the only option was sporadic terms of layoffs on 50% pay.
I proceeded to inform the CSA of these shortfalls in wages and that due to apparent PROTECTED earnings my support would not be deducted, which was fine until they reassessed my case completely and now due to my daughter being older my weekly payments are only £29.38. Woopee you may think, but now they also want all the arrears paying back over a supposedly none negotiative period of 24 months at a rate of £76 per week, on top of the £29.38 regular payment, eg £105.
This is a cut off just over a 3rd of my weekly salary and thus as I and my partner are just treading water with bills will result in defaults on mortgage payments. Now I have no problem paying the maintenance or the arrears, the problem I have is the time scale they want the arrears paid in. I have on numourous occasions contacted the CSA in Belfast to sort this out to no avail. They will not extend the term of repayment to a manageable amount (my suggestion being £25 a week for 5 years) so when I said my only other option is to quit work due to if i’m going to go into debt i may as well not work and go into debt rather than work and still get deeper.
Their only reply was were goverend by CSA law we can make whatever decision we wish regarding how we aquire arrears our decision is final and if you terminate employment we will see this as an act of being unwilling to pay and proceed with ENFORCEMENT procedures, of which are explained on their own website.
If there is anyway I can extend the term please feel frre to let me know, I can’t think of any other financial organisation that would not assist willing payers to make payments.
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4 Responses to “Can I extend the time to pay back CSA arrears?”
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I recently received a telephone call from the CSA telling me I had £1600 arrears which date back to prior to 2007. I disputed this on the basis that I had received a nil assessment in February 2007, this stated that my required contribution was zero. At this time I had lost my job due to ill health and was in receipt of incapacity benefit.
I have now been working for a few months, the process of ongoing maintainence is subject of a private agreement between myself and my ex. However, the CSA tell me they have reopened my case and will need me to pay the arrears at £30 per week, and will need to confirm with my ex that she regards the case as closed from a CSA perspective.
I tried to negotiate a suitable level of repayment which was affordable but as with many they have imposed this level of repayment, with the comment “my manager would not authorise an arrangement of less than £30″. So what I thought if you cannot agree a suitable schedule why are you answering the calls!
I cannot afford the amount they are asking for so will have to see what happens.
I do intend to complain and see where it takes me,
Alex
i am having the exact same problem i have over £10,000 arrears and yes i hold my hands up to these arrears and iam totally willing to pay these arrears back but at a suitable amount and time frame that i can afford and to stop me and my wife and 2 step children going in to financial hardship. if you have any luck with this please do not hessitate to contact me please. need this sorted i just want this nightmare to be over and to be able to get on with my life. i really dont understand why they will not listen to reason, if they would just listen every party involved would be happy and they will get there money back and no one suffers its ridiculous. who are they to decide it gets me so angry. we should stand united and stop this happening and shut this organisation down its not right and its certainly not fair. ive asked to pay the arrears back over 6 years at a £100 per month on top of what i already pay just for the next 2 years after that they can take what they want. i need this time scale extended and the amount decreased. please someone help me.
I went self employed. They can demand more money from my business but i jus dont have it. They have said they will allow an easier payment plan to help my business survive. If they did demand the full repayment they could ask my boss….. Oh thats me. But they won get it. My daughter is 19 now so i only have to pay my arrears. Prior to this i was paying £450 a month. Thankfully i some how managed it and the bulk of my arrears have gone, but last year i was made redundant and found myself nearly loosing everything i had worked so hard to keep so with little work available i went self employed in a little venture. I have finally got myself back on my feet only to be contacted about arrears again its just over £2000 left to pay trouble my business is still developing and can ill affrord it. However i will set my repayment offer which i can afford they will just have to take it, if it goes to court they will see that i am making regular payments and hopefully except that. Also I was on the 25% of my gross salary not the new 15% i wanted to be assessed for the new rate but they told me i could not change as my case started prior to the new percenage. Unbelievable bull.
Hi John,
The calculation would have included your net salary as opposed to gross.
Net weekly income of employed earner
3.—(1) The net weekly income of the non-resident parent as an employed earner shall be—
(a)his earnings provided for in paragraph 4 less the deductions provided for in paragraph 5 and calculated or estimated by reference to the relevant week as provided for in paragraph 6; or
(b)where the Secretary of State is satisfied that the person is unable to provide evidence or information relating to the deductions provided for in paragraph 5, the non-resident parent’s net earnings estimated by the Secretary of State on the basis of information available to him as to the non-resident parent’s net income.
Deductions
5.—(1) The deductions to be taken from gross earnings to calculate net income for the purposes of this Part of the Schedule are any amount deducted from those earnings by way of—
(a)income tax;
(b)primary Class 1 contributions under the Contributions and Benefits Act or under the Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act; or
(c)any sums paid by the non-resident parent towards an occupational pension scheme or personal pension scheme or, where that scheme is intended partly to provide a capital sum to discharge a mortgage secured upon that parent’s home, 75 per centum of any such sums.
Hopefully, if you are negotiating a reasonable offer for the re payment of the outstanding amount, the agency will accept it.
You should be aware that if a DEO can not be implemented, and arrears have accrued after 12/07/00 the agency can apply to the courts (who must make the order if they decide the money was due and has not been paid) for a Liability Order which enables the CSA to take further action.
chall ~ afairercsaforall