Need help fighting the CSA?

July 1, 2008

If like many other people you are having trouble with the CSA, one of the members of our CSA advice forum may have the solution.

If you are, like myself, being screwed by the CSA because you been caught up in the “old” system and find yourself and your family out of pocket by some considerable amount – then it’s time to take action rather than spout hot air.

Have a look at what they have to say and see if this applies to you. You can read the full thread here.

Comments

  • IAIN MACDOUGALL says:

    I HAD A WAGES DEDUCTION ORDER FOR £275 MAINTENCE AND £100 ARREARS PER MONTH.WHEN THE MAINTENCE CEASED I THOUGHT I WOULD ONLY NEED TO PAY THE ARREARS.CSA SAID TUFF WE STILL WANT THE £375 PER MONTH TO PAY THE ARREARS ANYTHING I CAN DO ABOUT THIS

  • Shell Forrest says:

    Hey you are lucky my husband loses £750 month from his wages, Deductions from earnings, so we cannot even have a night out. We have less than £700 a month to pay all our bills and buy food & are not going into major debt just to live. We have a 3yr old & I am pregnant. Any help advise or anything coz right now no one can help, and we are just sinking lower & lower into debt just so this 1 child can live like a king, and his mother earns more than my husband a month. Where is the fairness in that. I have even told the CSA that they are discriminating against my child as they told me to take mine out of childcare to pay them!! CSA should be got rid off, it does no good for no one the way it is currently run. So yeah I know how your feeling & I feel sorry for ya Ian, but I’ve been fighting this since 2004 & all they keep doing is putting the money up! nightmare

  • Dee says:

    SHELL :You only end up having a deductions of earnings order if you have not been compliant and not paid child support in the first place!!The CSA will get your employer to deduct 15% for 1 child so unless you are on an awfully high wage the vast majority of the deductions have got to be arrears which would not be the case had you paid or saved the contribution toward your partner childs upkeep whilst assessment were carried out!The fact that there is 1 child living with you will be taken into account and when the 2nd child is born that will also be taken into consideration and deductions made from your partners salary before a maintenance calculation is made for the child from a previous relationship.Tax credits will take into account any child support your partner has too pay and they will contribute toward child care. Pay child support rather than let arrears accumalate or set money aside so when assessment is finalised you have the money to pay in full and you would not be in this position!

  • chall1964 says:

    SHELL :You only end up having a deductions of earnings order if you have not been compliant and not paid child support in the first place!! – by DEE

    -Not necessarily true… There are plenty of cases where a NRP HAS been compliant and arrears have accrued due to CSA delays ,maladministration and neglect of a case.

    SHELL: my husband loses £750 month from his wages, Deductions from earnings, so we cannot even have a night out. We have less than £700 a month to pay all our bills and buy food

    The CSA can legally via a DOE take up to 40% of the NRP’s income – they have to leave you with at least 60%.

    Google afairercsaforall

    Theres plenty of info on there re the CSA.

  • tonyb63 says:

    I received a reassment form in July and sent back all the information the csa asked for ,they bumped my payments up by a considerable amount which i expected however they want the new payments back dated to march , i have never missed a payment but now find myself over £2000 in arrears through no fault of mine but incompetance from the csa are the csa allowed to back date payments if i have never missed a payment , the reason the csa gave me was they started looking into my reassment in march so thats when they want payment from me even though they knew i didn’t receive the letter from them until march anyone help please , Tony

  • chall1964 says:

    Hi Tony,

    This has also happened to my partner – his ex requested a re assessment in Sept 06, first he knew about it was when he received the request for more information in Sept 07 from the CSA…

    Re assessments are back dated, to the date they were requested, regardless of when the CSA get round to notifying/requesting further info from the NRP.

    It would be beneficial all round, if the CSA were given reasonable time limits in which to complete re assessments, thus preventing so many cases of arrears accruing due to their delays.

  • John Paul Blair says:

    I have 5 grand of arrears with the CSA. My son has now left parental care and i have ceased paying upkeep for him. (To them at least). But they have now told me that i only have TWO YEARS to pay back the 5 grand and are taking 250 from my wages. I am in severe debt and they refuse to take this or any other matters into account. They blame me for not responding to them over the years when i sent them everything for assesments. As we all know their systems went down and they lost their info. When you call them their pen pushing civil servant agents are frank and incompassionate and just do not even care what you are trying to tell them. These are people i would love to see unemployed and on the poverty line for their disgusting inhumane attitudes. I wish those people every disease and lingering slow death imaginable!! Sorry but its just my feelings!!

  • […] bloke doing that) and get yourself sorted. You will only pay

  • Keith Vause says:

    I agree with John Paul Blair. For eight years I had a private arrangement with my ex. She said she had writtento the CSA cancelling their involvement but they say she never did. Now they want me to repay £44,000 in arrears andhave deducted £870 a month from my wages. this barely leaves enough to pay my rent, Council tax, gas and electric but nothing for anything else…not even food. My ex does not respond to mail or telephone calls and the CSA (Arrogant lot) dont appear to care , dont listen and certainly dont do anything.

    No disease would be too lingering for their likes. No death to nasty.

    Why do we allow our government to do this and why have we not stood up and said NO ?

  • steve perkins says:

    fucking lying thieving bastards. down brown the clown !!! fuck all the bitches at all the csa offices !!!! where the fuck is guy faulks when he’s needed ?
    bunch of lying scumbags!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

  • andy says:

    fucking thieiving scum bags they are trying to get 50k out of me but not a chance i would rather go to jail

  • rich says:

    they really are theiving scummy bastards,
    i am being threatened with jail now. they are charging me for times i was out of work, i have been pushed into agreeing with what they want me to say in court and a payment agreement i cant afford imposed,
    they will not accept the fact that i pay my ex regular payments and all reciepts and bank statements are not classed as evidence.
    how is this legal????
    if anyone knows how i can fight this please help,

  • rich says:

    if i give my ex money directly into her bank account and she doesn’t declare it is the benefit fraud???

  • Kevin Oates says:

    My kids are both mid 20’s now, and i stopped paying in 2004, now i’m being hounded for over £9000 backdated, i have been given an account statement, which dos’nt list my income/protected income etc, i was self employed and on this statement calculations have been are weekly!!!!!!!! and more than i earnt, ie; leaving me £120 to live on for the year!!!
    calling them has been a waste off time and the complaints procedure is a joke, so it’s off to my MP see if he can help

    Any one seen dropdeaddads website

  • bill says:

    CSA are dishonest and corrupt . They have the courts to back their dishonesty which leaves the governments scapegoats at a great disadvantage with no or little redress. I know as i have been persecuted and framed by the csa. Bill

  • brian gallagher says:

    i,ve just been assesed by the criminal screwyou assholes, i was told i would be paying 350 per month,lo and behold i did some overtime and they took every single penny to the tune of 879.i rang them and all i got was some lying unfeeling scouse cunt,telling me,no matter what question i asked that they were entitled to take 40 percent,i wish santa would bring me a semi automatic for christmas.

  • Leon says:

    I am currently being screwed by the CSA to the tune of £20,000 which they want back in 2 years or they’ll take my passport, drivers licence and then send me to jail when they see fit. I earn £15,000 per year as I work in fitness, this makes no difference to them. This amount is all for arrears which they think I owe, even for periods when I wasn’t working they were charging me £252 a month. I’ve written to them on numerous occasions which they deny as they have convieniently lost my letters. They are currently taking 40% of my wages which does not leave me enough to live on. I have other debts to pay and many bills but they don’t operate like other debt collectors who actually into account your financial circumstances and have to accept a fair and reasonable amount of repayment per month.
    I agree with the opinion that the csa are a corrupt and dishonest organisation that need to be gotten rid of. Their complaints procedure is an absolute joke, you write and call and they just ignore you, even their chief exec ignored my letter of complaint. I have 2 out of 3 calls that I was supposed to get after they slapped a liabilty order on me, I still haven’t recieved a breakdown of how they calculated that I owe so much and how they worked out the monthly payments in the first place which I was promised. They expect us to go to all lengths to co operate with them but we get nothing of the sort in return. There is an organisation called ICE (independent case examiner) that can help with complaints against the csa so I will try them and let you all know how I get on. Other than that it’s going down the legal route which cost untold money of which I have none thanks to the nice folk at the csa. If anyone knows of anything else I can do to get help with fighting them please please let me know as I am getting close to breaking point and really don’t know if I can carry on. This is what they reduce people to, how can we in a so called civilised society allow people to be victimised in this way? I don’t want a handout, I just want to be treated fairly with some human decency. It’s a basic human right to be allowed to live and provide food for yourself after all, which because of them I can not do anymore.

  • Gavin says:

    I have recently had all the forms sent to me from the csa as after 8 years of my ex not allowing me to have any contact with the children she has decided that she wants money (yes she is a money grabber thats all she cares about). Due to the fact that i dont know the children any more and that they dont class me as their dad i was thinking of moving abroad to get away from the csa. The problem with this is that i have heard that they can still chase you down when you dont even live in this. Is this true? If what the online calculator says is true i will have no option but to some how get made redundant and start claiming benefits as this will put me and my current family in to a better financial situation. Which means i am throwing away a career that i have work 16 years to get to. I am not even seen as their dad any more as they call their moms partner dad, it even states on the older 1’s facebook page that her parents are her mom and her moms partner i am not even mentioned. If thats what they want then they should pay for them not me i have been wiped out of their life and no longer exist as far as they are concerned.

  • KELLY says:

    TRY PAYING ALL YOU TIGHTED ARSE ARESE HOLES WHO THINK ITS NOT YOUR RESPOSIBLITY , SAD LOT ITS THE LITTLE KIDS THAT GO WITH OUT, YOUR SPERM YOU PAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • KELLY says:

    KEEP ENJOYING YOUR HOILDAYS WHILE THE CHILDREN SUFFER

  • KELLY IS SCUM says:

    FUCK YOU KELLY. You are obviously a dim witted individual who has no care for fathers that have put everything into seeing and caring for there children, only to have it everything taken away from them. SCUM like you should be shot on sight. You really are a nasty bit of work who doesnt deserve the right to children herself. I hope the worst possible happens to you, you piece of trash

  • Dan says:

    Ok here we go.
    I left me ex partner when my daughter was 3 scince then (11 years ) on i have always had my daughter every weekend without fail. Always had her durring holidays and if i go on holiday i always take my daughter. I have always paid CSA on time through direct debit and never had any arrears.

    Me and my ex always saw eye to eye until she met someone. Then i start getting letters, phone calls from the CSA asking for details of wages,bills etc. Which i gave.
    My Ex has asked the CSA to take my partners wages into account on the grounds of housing cost. CSA agreed this and put me on a departure ( pre 2000 rules) so now my payments have sky rocketed 6x the origanal amount with £2000 arrears.

    I have contacted the CSA and explained that with the new payments i cant fisicly afford to live as my outgoings are far more than my incomings with the new amount. Which could result in me loosing everything including time spent with my daughter.

    I phoned the CSA and asked a couple of questions

    Q1 How can they take my partners wage into account when we are not married and she has a child which the CSA wont take into account.
    A1 You both live at the address and his father should be paying for him.

    Q2 How can you go from 1 rule to the other
    A2 Your ex has asked us to take you partner into account

    Q3 With the new payments do you take my current bills I.e ( loans, credit agreements, credit cards) into account as they were already in place before your new disishion.
    A3 no sir they are you responsability we can only take into account any bills that you and your ex had ( 11 years ago ) into account.

    Q4 the new amounts are leaving me with nothing or less is it worth me working
    A4 if you give up work sir we will make sure you cant claim benifits as you voulenterly gave up work.

    No matter what i ask the answer will always be the CSA will do what they want.
    The new rules where suppost to bring equal rights to the CSA but why bring in new rules if the CSA can just go straight back to the old ones when they want.

    I agree that every father should look after and financualy support there child but the CSA is braking up more familys than they are helping. The CSA has no sence of reality in these hard time not just for fathers but for the mothers as well. It seems that the CSA are quite happy to sting all the fathers who are willing to pay but arnt so much bothered about the ones who arnt.

    Current day

    Ok im still fighting with the CSA
    Ive had advise from everyone and contacted solisitors , MP , Debt company and the citizan advice bruero ( sorry about spelling)

    Solisitors gave the best advise but cost a furtune
    MP usless
    CaB usless
    Debt company i contacted because my outgoings are more NOW than before which means bill arnt getting paid.

    There are fathers out there, that are willing to pay matenance ( myself ) but the CSA cant get away with what they are doing.
    Where will i be with no house, car , job ………………. i will be without a daughter
    no house means she cant stay
    no car means no transport to pick her up
    no job means no to everything. Plus ive had the same job for 10 years why should i give it up.

    We have gone from everyone all happy
    to everyone arguing all thanks to the CSA

  • Dan says:

    payment went from 55 per month

    to

    480 per month with £2000 arears

  • poodmypats says:

    So lets get together and do something, lets all turn up at DWP offices in force and not move til we get ansers, invite the press, lets wake the country to these evil tossers, they love bullying individuals, easy prey for skint governments, but if we stand together…………………….

  • Susan says:

    I have 2 children.. son is 15, and i have received nothing from his father in 12 years, arrears are over £20,000.. that is less than £100 month towards his upkeep. I dont know where his father is, his family will not tell me and the csa cannot find him.

    I have a daughter who is 8.. her father stopped paying 14 months ago because his girlfriend begrudged it. He pays for her to fly to poland regularly to see her family with their baby, owns 5 properties, multiple cars and by his own admission pays himself a minimal salary out of his savings account which is supporting his new business.

    He says supporting his daughter isnt an essential expense.

    Neither of these dads care about their children clearly and that is apparent not least as they are both unreliable with contact.

    I pay hundreds of pounds in childcare and keep a roof over the childrens heads.

    I feel very sad reading some of the tales on here, but really there are many feckless fathers, out there, i personally know two of them..

    The victims here are the children. Not the parents.

  • cory says:

    Ues I am a father of two and I am leaving my job thanks to the fine csa I was off for 4 months due to the stress of gt all they always tell me different things even sent an email to mr cameron the cunt that he is never even had anyone reply. The csa need taken out big time and I am more than happy to stand up and be counted if they cannot find you they can do nothing. I take my sons every weekend and they just sit with me in the house watching tv they say they are in pplace to protect the kids but taking money from them is not protecting them just hindering them. I understand there are assholes who impregnate and fuck off so concentrate on them fuckers not the good men wwho love and adore their children. What about the women that fuck off and leave the kids with the father the csa do not chase them is that not discrimination.

  • skippy911 says:

    FUCK THE CSA BLOW THE FUCKERS OUT THE WATER

  • craig says:

    I have been paying for my three daughters even though one stays with me i have been trying to get the csa to see the fact that the erx should be paying me foor the daughter that stays with me. They finally agree when daughter is past claiming for and now say its too late but offered £100 compensation instead of the £4,500 that i lost and nthing for the house we got evicted from

  • Myles says:

    CSA have told me through their own incompetence they have not actioned 6years worth of payment schedule changes – resulting in a £3k arrears. I originally asked for Deductions From Earnings, so that the CSA could not say I wasn’t paying the right amount. I’ve bounced it to my MP!

  • Bodie says:

    After reading some of your emails and finding so many people like me or worse off im not sure if i wish to writer what has happened to me.
    The CSA has asked me to pay £97.00 a week even though i was not working about 6 years ago and was in america with a friend. I even wrote them a letter telling them that my then boss could not keep my job open for 7 or 8 week while i went to america looking for work. The CSA told me that they never recieved a letter from me, and as i had not signed on i still had to pay.

    A few weeks ago i went to my MP About paying £78.50 a week which is stupid as i guy said his out goings are more than his income… They do not care!!! I have asked to be re ccessed but told no, I have said that i wish to appeal again i was told no. I have said that i would pack in my job, i was told, that is up to you. now i have been told that i may have to keep on paying untill he is 19. I really have no insentive to keep working but my friends keep telling me to hold out s a little longer.
    My son did not go to colege most of last year he just hung out with his friends.
    I recieved a letter from my MP which said that i wrote to the CSA and said that i was taking a holiday from work …..! lie…..
    I think it is just a way to get money back for the people who do not want to pay for their kidds

    I wish all of you the best of luck.

    Down with the CSA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Tommi says:

    I first of all need to say that Kelly who made the comments 6 th December 2010 is a complete c*nt ! I think most of us agree here, that we do want to contribute to our child’s up bring?! Its narrow minded pricks like that, that give us all a bad name!! All that’s required from David Cameron and George Osbourne ( The two posh guys who don’t know the price of a pint on milk!) is to set a fair system so that we have non of this mess and fathers or non resident parents wanting to commit suicide, due to the fact they have very little money to live on !! Simple !!

  • louise says:

    I think if a man decides to leave his wife and young children for another woman he should pay for the consequences. Alot of men will do anything to not pay MONEY for their children that they help put on this earth. If you have children, you pay for them, not WALK AWAY and expect one parent to care and have all the financial responsibility. One parent with one lot of wages for x amount of children is not fair. The other parent who decided to run away from his responsibilities because he was so damn selfish should pay the full wack and it is tough luck if they dont like it. Its called facing up to your responsibilities. No children should suffer financially. Alot of men will not tell the truth about their earnings. What these men have to come to terms with the money is not going to the carer of the child it is helping the child or children to have what is needed, by refusing to pay for their own flesh and blood they are the ones that are suffering. The men moaning on here and being aggressive are very self centred maybe you should of thought of the consequences of your actions. Im only getting five pounds for my three children a week if im lucky. My ex husband will do anything not to pay im the one having to chase up money because children are expensive and im the only wage earner. I dont think the csa are doing enough where im concerned. My ex husband has even adopted another child by this so called woman he ran away with and told the csa so that his own flesh and blood get less. He had a good job at the post office for twenty years and deliberatly got the sack so he would not pay for his kids. He does not even want to see them, send birthday cards etc. I would say he is a EVIL GET. I work all hours under the sun to make ends meat. Five pounds buys you one happy meal ha. So you men on here need to be ASHAMED OF NOT PAYING FOR YOUR KIDS. I REALLY DONT KNOW HOW YOU CAN LIVE WITH YOURSELF. BUT REMEMBER YOUR CHILDREN ARE SUFFERING IF YOUR NOT PAYING SO THINK ON ALL OF YOU. I hop the CSA SCREW YOU FOR EVERY PENNY.

  • louise says:

    ANOTHER THING I WILL SAY HERE SOMETIMES WHEN THINGS HAVE BEEN REALLY HARD I HAVE FELT LIKE LEAVING THE KIDS ON MY EX HUSBANDS DOOR STEP AND RUNNING OFF BUT I KNOW HE WOULD NOT LOOK AFTER THEM AND THEY WOULD END UP IN CARE. SO YOU MEN THINK ON THE CARER WHO STANDS BY THEIR CHILDREN HAS FEELINGS TOO. I WOULD BE FINANCIALLY BETTER OFF WITHOUT MY CHILDREN AND COULD HAVE A REALLY GOOD LIFE STYLE IF I ONLY THOUGHT OF MYSELF. BUT IM A CARING LOVING PARENT THAT WILL STAND BY MY CHILDREN. SO THINK ON YOU MEN OUT THEIR. ALL YOU SEEM TO WORRY ABOUT IS YOUR POCKETS AND WHAT TO SPEND IT ON BUT IT SEEMS TO BE NOT ON THE CHILDREN.

  • Emma Tucker says:

    Help we moved to Australia on a working visa for four years the Australian CSA are taking over 2,000 pounds a month of my husband. We are unable to live as we are not entitled to any benefits as we are on a working visa. Our son is sleeping on a mattress with hold on it and goes to school with ripped clothes too small for him. The children are in the the UK and my husband left over 130,000K equity in the house, a new car fully paid for and all the endowment policies for the care of his children and left with nothing. We are in a position now that we cannot pay our taxes and we cannot afford to pay for flights back home to try and start again. No one will help us we are just told that his ex can chose where to have the assessment made and it does not matter what happens to us. We are going to end up homeless soon and the Australian government WILL NOT assist us to get home. I do not know where to turn and am in a downward spiral of depression as I cannot cope with anymore. To add to this our tax is going up tomorrow due to carbon tax and we will have even less to survive on. This is a complete and disgusting disregard of human rights. She still claims single person allowances and all benefits even though we are paying her more than most people can earn full time in the UK and it is all tax free. She has no outgoings as my husband left her in a stable state. How can this be justified how can two kids cost 2.000 a month with no outgoings and we are left with 100 pounds for my son and myself to live on a month out of my husbands salary. Also in this equation we cannot take my son to the doctors or dentist as we cannot afford to pay for it. Healthcare is not free here neither is schooling. I am broken and do not know where to turn anymore we are just a pay packet for an evil twisted woman who just wants to cause as much pain and hurt as she can.

  • Shawn says:

    This seems pointless!

  • daniel williams says:

    Havent seen my son for 3 years not by my own choice yet the cunt ex is still entitled to my money pay 88 a week and currently in 6k arrears fuck the csa id rather do time in nick we are all sheep in this slave labouring fucked country ran by pussies I fucking hate it here and the csa are gonna push me to far sooner or later.

  • Debbie Barton says:

    To cut a very long story short 4 years ago l turned to the csa for help with my sons dad he works full time and at this moment in time he has a brand new bmw car and a brand new house and l cant even afford a weekly shop. The csa send me letters of payment plans only after lve got in touch with them they never get in touch first . They even left me standing outside court fir hours because they dudnt tell me it had been cancelled. Any way all these promised payments were never seen . The last year l have gone through there compliant process only to end up in the same place. My case was taken to ciurt again and he was told he was going to get it taken out his wages plus arreas but many months have gone by and still no payment then l find out his employer have been sending payment but gor some crazy reason the csa have been sending them back to him . So for 4 years of no payments tye lasr few months they have been sending my money back to him. I asked for this in writting but they still havent sent it and the wont answer my calls or emails. Bow ia it just me or is something not right about tgis bur k cant get no helo from anybody

  • Meh says:

    How they can apply this blanket amount of 15% of before tax earnings anywhere in the country is a joke.

    Ok so I had a one nighter about 7 yrs ago which turned out to be the most expensive night of my life. Yes I could have had protection but I didn’t and believed her lie of being on the pill. Then 9 months after her saying its what I want and you have no choice and I can do it on my own blah blah in comes a letter from the csa demanding payment.

    Living around 200 miles away in london paying higher living costs etc and her in the middle of nowhere paying peanuts she can basically live off my wages without having to move her arse off of the sofa watching her payments increase as I slowly work my way up the career ladder plus trying to support my family here.

    We tried a time I would come to visit once a month plus pay a private agreement but once work became more demanding and weekends wernt even an option any more oh and she had decided to get married another csa letter came through.

    Its just discussing how the CSA seem to think they are entitled to a percentage of what ever you earn. They’re choice. They should contribute also with mandatory working hours none of this sit on your arse at home or in the coffee shop with mates mums rubbish

  • Jonathan says:

    They say I owe 20k but gave the figures at my old wage, of 50 k they won’t amended it. They take 40 % of my current salary 30k. They used the wrong earning figures for 3 years and came up with a magical figure.

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