We all need to stand up to the CSA!

January 21, 2016

What a great site – I wish I had known of it sooner! Reading many of the stories here mine just echoes so many of them.

Unfortunately the CSA make everything so much more complicated and convoluted than it ever needs to be, so there is never a ‘short’ way to recount dealings with them:

Divorced in 2006 the CSA were on my case right away. There was never going to be any chance that I wouldn’t care for and support my children, the divorce wasn’t their fault, but the CSA have always treated me like a stereotypical absent father. I have a pile of documents that measure about 13″ high from all the wranglings that have gone on, and when you consider my personal/financial circumstances have changed only once in the past 10 years, it beggars belief how they can make so many errors. I get re-calculations through for no reason – I even have two sent on the same day, dated by the same sender the same day, with totally different calculations on. The latest farce is due to their incompetence and an error by my bank, I was not made aware that for SIX YEARS I was paying every month instead of every 4 weeks. That accrued an annual deficit of one months payments. Despite having many problems with them throughout that time and countless conversations and letters, not once did they ever bring that to my attention. The phoned me in the middle of the working day around July 2014 and were so aggressive, it was like having a bailiff on your doorstep! Telling them it wasn’t a convenient time to drop a bombshell like £1000 of arrears just made no difference, they insisted I pay it immediately and without any question or proof. Due to some other agreements between my ex-wife and I, it was agreed that these ‘arrears’ be struck off, and on that understanding I have never paid anything towards them. Now I find that over the course of these last 20 months since then, the arrears now only total £111. Now some might say, ‘great, don’t complain’, but its not as simple as that. As I have always believed, there is something sinister about this – I have only ever paid what the CSA have told me to pay and never knowingly missed a payment. What sort of accounting goes on in this place where they can ‘fiddle’ the numbers so that I pay what they ask for, and in the background they can manipulate the books to write off arrears? Regardless of who wines or loses, its not transparent and its fraudulent surely?

This is just the tip of the 10-year long iceberg and I could sit and type all day about my anger and frustrations with the CSA. My initial complaint over their creative accounting went into them in July last year. I am now at stage 2 of their formal complaints procedure but ironically having been unemployed for nearly 4 months all went quiet from them (nothing in it for them I guess). I advised them verbally back in November that I was back at work from Jan 4th and still heard nothing (typical). This second stage complaint included another reminder of being back at work as I didn’t want this to create problems later on and I want to make sure my children are ok. Suddenly I am their new focus again, but a call from them at 7pm last night where they nonchalantly said I could give them my employment details over the phone was met with a curt ‘no’ from me. On principle, they have had 7 months to respond properly to my query and all I get is meaningless waffle and non-sensical, unintelligent crap back. Its time to stand up and make a point. 10 years of trouble. 10 years of letter after letter after letter, and call upon call – getting nowhere, CSA departments admit they don’t talk to eachother and assessments have no details of any complaints the senior team are working on – what on earth!?

I have stated that I will happily provide them all the details they need, I’m not going anywhere and I want to get this sorted, but not until they can provide clear and accurate accounts of payments and calculations, that isn’t much to ask.

I would like to add here that reading others’ accounts I am just as angry at those absent parents who shun their responsibilities and leave parents with care high and dry – what are the CSA doing about those people?! It seems to me they go for the ‘easy kill’ every time. If you are a full-time employee you are easy to deal with. Anything more trying like a query or an absent self-employed, responsibility-avoidant parent, that’s too complicated and they aren’t intelligent enough or trained to deal with that sort of thing. “CSA” is a misnomer, they have no concern about the welfare of the children at all, and I have even had their representatives tell me that quite proudly.

The only way for action and reform is to apply pressure at its source, via government. At one stage I felt I was totally alone in all this; isolated and making a fuss about issues that seemed to only apply to me. However this is clearly a very widespread problem and we need to bring all the voices together to bring it into focus. I have written to my local MP in Fareham, Hants and I hound her all the time on it. Ironically I think even they are at their witts’ end with it but that’s just not good enough, someone has to do something.

So I urge everyone to follow up every case they have and write to their MP. Google who they are. Be direct, non-aggressive but firm and keep it succinct but do it. Enough noise made at a local level will have to come out  somewhere higher up.

In the meantime as I await the written demand for my own personal work information, I have zero faith in the calculation being right, and whatever happens always sit awaiting the next brown envelope dropping through the door to tell me “Regrettably, there was an error made some 3 years ago and you now owe…blah blah blah…”.

Roll on when my youngest starts work and I’ll be popping the champagne!

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