CSA increased my payments for no reason

March 8, 2013

I have now been paying Child Maintenance for 10 years, £56,000.00 in total, and I am totally convinced that the CSA is not fit for purpose. I have never once stopped my payments as I love my children and I have never paid less than I have been told to by the CSA. For most of the last 10 years the CSA has inexplicably imposed a ‘deductions from earnings’ order on me so I have had little choice anyway.

One of my main complaints is that I speak to a different person each time I contact them and I am given different advice. Relatively recently I was informed that my payments would be slightly less per month. As I had recently changed employment and my net pay was less this seemed perfectly logical.

However, a few months down the line I was told that the payments were insufficient and several hundred pounds extra would be deducted from my earnings to make up the shortfall! When I questioned this method of an innocent parent having to pay for a mistake made by the CSA I was told I could have a complete review of all of my payments.

This I agreed to.

A few weeks later I was informed that there had been an additional shortfall in payments many years ago,(again, despite the CSA setting the amount of monthly payments), and I would have to pay even more. I was told that I could not appeal and payments would again be by a deductions from earnings order. In addition, any overpayments by a parent seem to be looked upon by the CSA as ‘unfortunate’ and future payments are never decreased to take overpayments into account.

However, any underpayments can be traced back for as many years as the CSA choose.

Comments

  • brett says:

    As Ive said before, this corrupt shower of shit can do what they like. They particularly target the PAYE people and don’t care how much debt they put people in. They have put me through hell and Ive been in the CSA system since it was formed. See your MP and hopefully you can get him/her on your side. Some MP’s do help, others are a waste of time. Request your Data Protection file, it costs £!0 and get a specialist CSA lawyer to go through it. Although reading other posts on here, the CSA remove letters from the file, that they don’t wish you to see and add letters claiming they sent the letter to you, but ofcourse they didn’t. They will then class you as uncompliant, issue a DEO order and if they’ve made up ficticious arrears as they probably have in your case, threaten you with a Liability Order and or baliffs.
    They love to say “weve made a mistake” when they ring you up telling you how much arrears you owe. They then send out threatening letters in large print, saying you can’t appeal and that they’re going to take 40% of your net income.
    As I said at the top of my comment, they target the PAYE people, the soft targets in order to balance the books and keep these low life CSA case workers in a job.
    Sorry I can’t be more positive for you, but Im just worn out with the shit Ive been through over the years.
    Whatever acton you take, good luck !

  • lisa says:

    CSA complaints free phone number 08007838527 You may have been phoning and complaining to the CSA for a long time getting nowhere use this guide and you will see how quickly they respond. Please do excuse if I repeat the steps I have done this for a good reason. 1.Complain and Appeal and get your MP involved EMAIL the complaint and appeal copy everyone in.
    2.Order your Data Prints by post and email.
    3.Email all and sundry use the email list and email them every couple of days to remind them.
    4.Not happy with data prints items missing Complain to ICO be sure to copy everyone in. [email protected]
    This is what you do immediately if you believe the CSA are taking too much from you! ■First thing you must do is make an official Complaint and Appeal *EMAIL THE COMPLAINT*and contact your MP and get them involved regarding your issues you are having with the CSA. Mention that you believe that they have made an Official Error. Ask the CSA for the decision to be set aside as they are not leaving you enough to live on and is going to cause you an injustice. This is based upon Regulation 55 of the Child Support Act (Maintenance Assessment Procedure) 1992 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/1813/made
    Attach a copy of ALL your outgoings, even the things the CSA don’t allow for.

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