Arrears I don’t owe and have proved twice before

• Twice I been accused of owing money to the CSA
• Twice I have proved I don’t
• And now I am being accused for a third time

All this because a CSA complaint manager has decided to disagree with his own colleague and their calculations on a previously closed case.

I pay child maintenance via my payroll- it is deducted at source and has been for a considerable number of years.

In August 2005 CSA wrote to me saying I was in arrears, without any explanation of how and proceeded to take an extra £850 over the next 4 months. I didn’t owe any monies and had documentary evidence (letters from the CSA amongst other things) to support this. I lost count the number of times I faxed and posted these documents. Eventually, in the December they admitted they were at fault, paid me £100 compensation and amended my payments. Despite them taking four months to take the £850, their repayment back to me was to take over a year. A revised payment schedule was put into place for the whole of 2008 and into 2009.

I cannot begin to describe the frustration, emotional and financial distress this caused me not to mention the expensive phone calls and fax costs. However, like I say, it was finally rectified.

This was the second time the CSA had told me I owed monies when I didn’t so surely this couldn’t happen again.
Oh yes it can!!!!

Last week I received a letter saying I should have been paying £109.00 per week from June 2008 and a revised payment schedule would follow…………….Today (06/05/2010) I received a letter saying that the child maintenance is £93.00 per week and the schedule states that they are going to take£759.16 on 25/05/2010(£465.10 regular maintenance plus £293.96 arrears) and from 25/06/2010 onwards £699.76 (£405.80 regular maintenance plus £293.96 arrears). Again- no explanation of where these arrears have come from.

My current payment they take is £344.71, I cannot comprehend where this increase has come from. I didn’t owe any money at the end of 2007, I have paid what they have asked for since so how am I in arrears????

I have been trying to resolve the matter direct with a complaint manager-James and getting what seems to be nowhere.

He has insisted that he must go back to 2005 to complete an audit on the case to establish what arrears there are. When asked why he needed to do this when it has been done before, his response was “ it is my job” and he was “questioning” the work that Falkirk did (Falkirk being the office who dealt with the complaint in 2007). When I tried to explain that I was being penalised for maladministration by Falkirk. He said that I needed to know what maladministration meant, it was an error and I was not being penalised it was liabilities I owed! So I went through all those months of distress for nothing as he was now saying what they did was wrong.

I have sent James all sorts of documents, to name but a few- letters confirming there were no arrears and that the CSA were at fault, the 2008 payment schedule reflecting me being repaid the overpayment, copies of the audits that were completed to establish there were no arrears as at 18/11/2007 covering 2005-2007, and various other documents again stating there were no arrears. His words on receipt of the letter from the Senior Resolution Manager and the Client Service Director were- oh they are official agency letters!

From speaking to James today, he is saying that there were arrears at the end of 2007 (£1006.38), the “reg 10” (reduced maintenance schedule) should never have been put in place and obviously since then the incorrect amount of maintenance has been collected so there are further arrears. He is going to send the audits to me next week (once they have been checked, like they were checked last time) and then we can discuss a repayment option. As it is an error by the agency, he will accept negotiation on the repayment instead of what the agency set. I have asked him how do we know that his work is now correct- he said it is.

I have asked for him to put in writing where and what is wrong with the audits compared to what Falkirk did and he said he is not willing to do this.

I have never disputed paying for my children and I have always paid maintenance. One of my children stays with me at least once a week, I have another of my children for his holidays ( 9-10 weeks a year)- this is after I have paid for his return flights to Inverness.

I cannot believe this is happening again, I do not know how much more I can take, how can they get away with treating people like this??????

To top things off, James cannot reassure me that this won’t happen again!!!