I have seen both sides of the Child Support Agency

My ex partner had a daughter when i first met him, 15 years ago the CSA took my ex’s wages and also MINE into consideration and arrived at a figure of £80 per week for 1 child. This was taken in a DOE, and we lost our flat because we could not afford to pay the mortgage.

Now I am the single mother with 2 of my ex’s children it doesnt seem their calculations work the same!!

I told my ex 4 years ago I no longer wanted to be with him, his response was to kick me and my 2 children out of HIS (joint tenancy) 3 bed council house, change the locks, refuse to give our belongings back, refuse to pay towards a joint bank loan (stupidly in my name)…so I had to rehome us, and declare myself bankrupt as I had to leave the home town and both of my jobs to move near my family as we had nowhere else to go. During the first year my ex paid me £40 a week for our 2 children (this way way below what the CSA would have taken from him)…when it came to winter and the kids were cuddled up on the sofa in their pj’s, coats, dressing gowns and a duvet beacause I could not afford gas (I had found a job and was working by then) I asked their father for more money, he replied No, so then I contacted the CSA.

After 2 years of his refusing to hand wage slips over, re-assessments and every other trick he could think of including lying and claiming he had shared care of the children I eventually had to get a local MP onto the CSA.

I finally got all the payments they had been keeping for the past 2 years (after a long investigation) …the problem I have now is the re-assessments. From May 2011 my payments have been a lot lower than they should have been, the CSA said he was not earning enough to take (he went on 3 holidays abroad, drives a chrysler voyager, bought a horse for his parners kids, new puppies frequently, a new convertiable beetle for his partner, the list goes on)…so I asked for a reassessment….and it turns out he was on a lot more than he claimed the last assessment, so CSA sends me new calculation f £84 a week….i knew it wouldnt last long…and hey ho!! money hadnt been paid to me, so I phone CSA they say ‘theres been a change of circumstance,your husband has overpaid, so were giving him the money back’…I know exactly what has happened, he’s done a sicky off work for a few weeeks to get 5 low wage slips and had another assessment….then he will go back to work and up the wages again…….he’s done it 3 or 4 times already over the past 2 years.

Its not like he’s even bothered with seeing the kids, he told them he can only afford to see them once a month and phones them once a month, hes not allowed to see or phone them without his partner and her kids all being present, then refuses to even buy them sweets, because its not fair if he buys HIS own kids and not the others, yet he lives with those kids and supplies for them every day (as the CSA takes off 25% of his wages for him to support 3 kids that are not his and already recieve maintenance from their 2 different fathers ) I even had to get 3 solicitors letters to force him to give his own kids toys back, beacause his NEW kids played with them, which upset my kids very much. He doesnt care about his kids.

Yet he has the nerve to phone their schools behind my back claiming PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY, bad mouth me and demand the school to send copies of their school reports to him!!

What I would like to know is Why cant the CSA do a yearly assessment?…even they must think it a little suss that every time they tell him to pay a certain amount, he strangely has a change of income???…and why should his pririty be supporting children that are not his own?

I would also like to add that I am not some lazy woman who just claims benefits, over the past 4 years I have worked, alongside spending 3 years at college and University to get a BND and a Degree, and now freelance from home, as I can work more hours without having to pay for childcare.

I can see both sides….the CSA unfairly take too much money from fathers who have given up their houses for their kids to stay in comfort and are willing to pay for kids they love. These good people seem to get ripped off…..the CSA needs some new rules, one’s that are fairer!!