CSA Arrears Advice
When non resident parents are contacted by the CSA they often don’t realise that they begin accruing arrears right then and there. The CSA will make an estimate on what the non resident parent has to pay, and even though the non resident parent (the father in most cases) will often dispute the calculation, arrears will start amassing straight away.
This means that when the Child Support Agency eventually starts taking payment, arrears will be added on to the amounts that they want. Of course, if the case has taken a long time to sort out, the arrears could be very high – making the monthly amounts the CSA wants to take very high indeed, often too high for many people to afford.
If you have one child, the CSA will demand 15% of your earnings after tax. They will also demand that any arrears that have built up since your case began are paid back, within a two year period. As most non resident parents will again dispute this, because the amount demanded by the CSA will be so high, they will often take this money in the form of a DEO (deduction from earnings order), which means the money will be deducted direct from your pay before you receive it.
You have a protected income of 60% of your salary, meaning the CSA can only take a maximum of 40% – but that is often more than most people can afford.
Non resident parents are advised therefore to put money aside for the payment of their children as soon as the CSA make contact with them. The CSA will try any means possible to claw back any CSA arrears as quickly as possible, and having savings put aside for this will alleviate much of the stress involved.
You can read a lot of stories on our website from people who have experienced problems with the Child Support Agency and how they dealt with CSA arrears problems. Their stories and their arrears advice could prove the difference in your struggle with the CSA.
If you need help dealing with the CSA, arrears advice or any advice about being a non resident parent, you can find it all here.
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I have been paying CSA since 1997 for my three sons, by DEO. Earlier this year I was unemployed and have not made payments since April, and I do understand that the arrears for this time will have to be paid now that I am employed again. The total of these arrears are just under £455, so imagine my surprise when last week I received an Enforcement letter telling me I was in arrears of just under £3770. I went through the motions and called them to find out where and how these arrears have come from. They told me it backdates from a change in circumstances in 2002 and that they would do a total breakdown and post it to me. This was 9 days ago, I have just got off the phone from them again, one department has told me that the paperwork has been sent and that I should have received it, the next department has told me that the paperwork should be complete in the next day or so and that I should receive it by the middle of next week, and that when I did, to give them a call. In the with all this happening I received a letter dated 4/08/11 with a breakdown of all debits and credits up to 1/08/11 and at the bottom it clearly states that the arrears are £455. No mention of the other £3200 I am supposed to owe, can they really do this ??? how can they say in one letter you owe one amount, and then 1 week later owe a completely different amount ? Can they actually backdate by 9 years and not notify you of this?
Someone please help