I can’t support my family because the CSA wants £500 in arrears – this cannot be legal

June 21, 2013

yet another CSA disaster, im sure i must not be the only one, last year i lost my job, due to me having a new wife and a child to support naturally i was keen to make sure i was back in work as soon as possible. This meant taking the first job that was available to me and in this climate that was not easy. I did manage to find work quite quickly but earned a mere £11,000 per year, this meant that my wages came out at around £850 a month. a terrible wage to support a family on.

Due to this the CSA were really unable to take any money from me at all as the minimum amount they can leave you with is £860. However this still meant i was supposed to be paying £120 a month to them. this meant over the last year i have just been gathering arrears but have not been able to pay this off at all.

Now i have a new job and earning a more respectable £20,000 a year, not the best wage but better. Today despite making payments to the CSA i have now been informed of a deductions of earnings which has been put to my new employer. They are now planning on taking £500 a month in arrears until this has cleared any outstanding arrears. This means now i am unable to support my family at all or feed my child. How can the CSA think this figure is fair at all. I have never complained i should pay or the amount i should pay, but surely they have to take my child into account that lives with me, as now he will have no food or no home, i cant do both no matter how i try and balance the books.

Surely this cannot be legal?

Comments

  • John says:

    There is no reasoning with the crap CSA staff,

    Go to your M.P. and ask them to intervene. They may be able to defer some arrears. Get everything in writing from the CSA, and ask for your data prints, which will show how they are calculating what they say that you owe them.

    Don’t believe a word they say, as they are all corrupt liars and cheats.

  • gareth1967 says:

    does going to you MP actually help anything ? Is this a route that is worth going down, it seems that there are a few people commenting in different post saying that it is an option?
    Any pos or neg views ?
    thanks

  • Sally says:

    John and Peter are correct…

    Our local MP helped us with false arrears and we had a case worker asigned to us… it definitely helped my partner…

    i’d say that most MP’s will help, there have only been a couple of posts saying that MP’s didn’t help but that is individual MPs in a certain area… i’d say the majority are willing to help… you have nothing to lose.

  • Melanie F says:

    I have today been told by the csa that agreeing to a default maintenance payment will mean that the case is considered dealt with once finance have contacted the NRP (my partner) and arranged to set up the default payments. That they cannot assess him on his wages (which would cripple us financially!!) unless he provides his wage slips. They said they don’t follow up default payment cases, i.e they don’t chase you for more money. IS THIS TRUE?? Sounds too good to be true to me……
    Otherwise wouldn’t every NRP do this?? – Provided they are on a decent wage I mean!!! Obviously default amounts are horrific if NRP is on min wage.
    Need advice and clarification as don’t trust what I have been told today by csa….past experiences!!

  • John says:

    I found that my M.P. was helpful, and the CSA do ‘jump’ when M.P.’s are involved.

    However, there is a point that M.P.’s won’t go beyond, because they are stakeholders in the CSA company. In my case , my M.P. ‘turned bandit’, and used the phrase ” Parliamentary protocol, prevents me from interfering further”, then jumped in bed with the CSA and the ombudsman.

    Remember the words ‘restorative justice’, because when the wheel does come off, and the legal thieves get involved in a class action against the CSA, then all us may be able to obtain justice and compensation, for being demonised and criminalised by these corrupt scumbags!

  • Sally says:

    Melanie, I would not believe a work the CSA told me…. Go to citizens advice bureau and look at the NACSA website…. Both of those will provide you with unbiased advice…

    @ John, that’s terrible… What was the outcome of your case/situation?

  • Thomas Howells says:

    Contacting the MP certainly helped, emailed my MP, within a few hours they had emailed me back to say they had made contact with the CSA and would be in touch.

    A day later magically the CSA were all too keen to take a look at my case again, this has now been adjusted considerably to allow the support of both children from the family. Its a shame as some case workers you speak too are actually doing a good job. Just the majority of CSA staff abuse the powers and see themselves on a personal quest to destroy none resident parents life’s.

    I would highly recommend anyone else struggling to contact their MP, if anything the CSA will act a lot more cautiously

  • John says:

    @ Sally – I was both an NRP and a PWC (split children). Two children lived with their mother, one told her where to go and stayed with me. She put in a claim to CSA (2000), and they came after me, and I began paying. However, they made mistake after mistake with my case, where I had to complain repeatedly. The ICE was involved, in first instance.

    I counter claimed for child support from my ex. The CSA were obstructive from day one, and attempted to give her a ‘nil assessment’. In essence I was financially keeping her and three children, even though one was living with me. She was working and had finances, but the CSA chose to ignore this. She did not pay for two years.

    I involved my M.P. as I was paying and she was not. Within a few weeks (2002), I received a breakdown of her arrears, and she started to pay me more than I was paying her, because she had arrears. Ha!

    However, in 2009, I wrote to CSA to inform them that one child had reached 19 and that my payment should cease for them, and in true CSA style, they invented arrears and stitched me up with £6,400 worth of debt. I told them where to go., and saw my M.P. I also went to a ‘rigged’ tribunal, where the adjudicator, worked for the CSA. ” I have no jurisdiction regarding arrears”, as he summed up!

    My M.P. forwarded my case to the parliamentary Ombudsman, on the basis of prolonged and continued maladministration. However, the Ombudsman, whitewashed my complaints, and my M.P. backed away stating ‘ parliamentary protocol, prevents me from intervening further’. This was because he is a CSA stakeholder (never confirmed – my guess). Even though maladministration was proven, the Ombudsman and M.P. washed their hands of my case! The very people, who are supposed to protect and serve us are corrupt!

    So, I was left high and dry, by the self-serving establishment and have been paying off £6400 arrears since 2009.

    My last one in the system is coming up to 19. The social network sites states that they are not living at home and are working. So, I inform the scum CSA, that child benefit should not be payable. They don’t want to know, and have not properly investigated the circumstances. In essence, they are obtaining money by deception from me. Theft act 1968, section 15.

    I now know that they are attempting to make me pay until 20, so I have re-contacted my M.P. asking who put this on the statute book and why, and pointing out that paying maintenance from 19 to 20 is ridiculous, especially as they are working and not living at home.

    I am pretty sure, that because so many are making private agreements, that the CSA are running out of victims, so they add another year on to keep themselves in jobs, and add to their gold plated pensions. Although they will claim it is educational reorganisation…..bullshit!

    People over-paying, people under-paying and 20% not paying at all.£3.8 billion uncollected. How is that fair? CSA 1, CSA 2, CSA 3. means that people are paying at different levels of income. I am on CSA 1, and have been/am paying 30% more than others.

    I have tried the European courts, but they wont take a case until its been through the UK system, which we all know has no chance of success, because its bent.

    I am not finished. I have all documentation, and will be seeking restorative justice, when the CSA are eventually exposed as conmen and fraudsters. Then I will be seeking mega compensation.

    Good luck to all!

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