Can I extend the time to pay back CSA arrears?
I have been in dealings with the CSA now for nearly 14 years. At the start of the case I paid regular maintenance approx £34 of my measly £157 wage. When i left that particular employment things started to go wrong, eg when I started working at my new firm of which the CSA was informed an assessment was never done and so no maintenance was paid.
Suffice to say and cut story short I am now working again full time for the last five years with full information provided to the CSA regarding wages access times to my daughter etc and have amazingly amassed an arrears amount of give or take a few pounds £8000.
When my assesment was made 5 years ago it was agreed that due to circumstances, eg new wife and two young children now 7 and 9 that my weekly payments would be £38 regular payments + £7 towards the wapping arrears amount (later discovering that £8000 arrears is a drop in the ocean compared to some cases). Anyhow due to recent financial events my firm decided that to conserve jobs the only option was sporadic terms of layoffs on 50% pay.
I proceeded to inform the CSA of these shortfalls in wages and that due to apparent PROTECTED earnings my support would not be deducted, which was fine until they reassessed my case completely and now due to my daughter being older my weekly payments are only £29.38. Woopee you may think, but now they also want all the arrears paying back over a supposedly none negotiative period of 24 months at a rate of £76 per week, on top of the £29.38 regular payment, eg £105.
This is a cut off just over a 3rd of my weekly salary and thus as I and my partner are just treading water with bills will result in defaults on mortgage payments. Now I have no problem paying the maintenance or the arrears, the problem I have is the time scale they want the arrears paid in. I have on numourous occasions contacted the CSA in Belfast to sort this out to no avail. They will not extend the term of repayment to a manageable amount (my suggestion being £25 a week for 5 years) so when I said my only other option is to quit work due to if i’m going to go into debt i may as well not work and go into debt rather than work and still get deeper.
Their only reply was were goverend by CSA law we can make whatever decision we wish regarding how we aquire arrears our decision is final and if you terminate employment we will see this as an act of being unwilling to pay and proceed with ENFORCEMENT procedures, of which are explained on their own website.
If there is anyway I can extend the term please feel frre to let me know, I can’t think of any other financial organisation that would not assist willing payers to make payments.
12 thoughts on “Can I extend the time to pay back CSA arrears?”
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I recently received a telephone call from the CSA telling me I had £1600 arrears which date back to prior to 2007. I disputed this on the basis that I had received a nil assessment in February 2007, this stated that my required contribution was zero. At this time I had lost my job due to ill health and was in receipt of incapacity benefit.
I have now been working for a few months, the process of ongoing maintainence is subject of a private agreement between myself and my ex. However, the CSA tell me they have reopened my case and will need me to pay the arrears at £30 per week, and will need to confirm with my ex that she regards the case as closed from a CSA perspective.
I tried to negotiate a suitable level of repayment which was affordable but as with many they have imposed this level of repayment, with the comment “my manager would not authorise an arrangement of less than £30”. So what I thought if you cannot agree a suitable schedule why are you answering the calls!
I cannot afford the amount they are asking for so will have to see what happens.
I do intend to complain and see where it takes me,
Alex
i am having the exact same problem i have over £10,000 arrears and yes i hold my hands up to these arrears and iam totally willing to pay these arrears back but at a suitable amount and time frame that i can afford and to stop me and my wife and 2 step children going in to financial hardship. if you have any luck with this please do not hessitate to contact me please. need this sorted i just want this nightmare to be over and to be able to get on with my life. i really dont understand why they will not listen to reason, if they would just listen every party involved would be happy and they will get there money back and no one suffers its ridiculous. who are they to decide it gets me so angry. we should stand united and stop this happening and shut this organisation down its not right and its certainly not fair. ive asked to pay the arrears back over 6 years at a £100 per month on top of what i already pay just for the next 2 years after that they can take what they want. i need this time scale extended and the amount decreased. please someone help me.
I went self employed. They can demand more money from my business but i jus dont have it. They have said they will allow an easier payment plan to help my business survive. If they did demand the full repayment they could ask my boss….. Oh thats me. But they won get it. My daughter is 19 now so i only have to pay my arrears. Prior to this i was paying £450 a month. Thankfully i some how managed it and the bulk of my arrears have gone, but last year i was made redundant and found myself nearly loosing everything i had worked so hard to keep so with little work available i went self employed in a little venture. I have finally got myself back on my feet only to be contacted about arrears again its just over £2000 left to pay trouble my business is still developing and can ill affrord it. However i will set my repayment offer which i can afford they will just have to take it, if it goes to court they will see that i am making regular payments and hopefully except that. Also I was on the 25% of my gross salary not the new 15% i wanted to be assessed for the new rate but they told me i could not change as my case started prior to the new percenage. Unbelievable bull.
Hi John,
The calculation would have included your net salary as opposed to gross.
Net weekly income of employed earner
3.—(1) The net weekly income of the non-resident parent as an employed earner shall be—
(a)his earnings provided for in paragraph 4 less the deductions provided for in paragraph 5 and calculated or estimated by reference to the relevant week as provided for in paragraph 6; or
(b)where the Secretary of State is satisfied that the person is unable to provide evidence or information relating to the deductions provided for in paragraph 5, the non-resident parent’s net earnings estimated by the Secretary of State on the basis of information available to him as to the non-resident parent’s net income.
Deductions
5.—(1) The deductions to be taken from gross earnings to calculate net income for the purposes of this Part of the Schedule are any amount deducted from those earnings by way of—
(a)income tax;
(b)primary Class 1 contributions under the Contributions and Benefits Act or under the Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act; or
(c)any sums paid by the non-resident parent towards an occupational pension scheme or personal pension scheme or, where that scheme is intended partly to provide a capital sum to discharge a mortgage secured upon that parent’s home, 75 per centum of any such sums.
Hopefully, if you are negotiating a reasonable offer for the re payment of the outstanding amount, the agency will accept it.
You should be aware that if a DEO can not be implemented, and arrears have accrued after 12/07/00 the agency can apply to the courts (who must make the order if they decide the money was due and has not been paid) for a Liability Order which enables the CSA to take further action.
chall ~ afairercsaforall
Do u not think that maybe if u weren’t trying to avoid ur responsibilities in the first place, u wouldn’t be in arrears!!!!! I mean really??!! Who do u think has been looking after and providing for ur children while u lot were living ur life as u seen fit. Man up and get on with it, u would think that all u so called “fathers” would want to provide for ur children regardless of weather ur still with the mother – but no…… ur all pathetic! They don’t stop being ur children just because ur no longer in that relationship.
Absolutely typical open up a dialogue for people to try and get help with their problems and sure enough as with anything else you get a brainless moron who knows sod all about peoples individual circumstances and probable has kids with some down and out who pays bugger all towards her children’s upkeep and just wants to use this as an excuse to have a rant and tar everyone with the same brush
As for those of you above as you have probably realised with my post being so long after the original I never did get any extension on payment time after receiving order of ENFORCEMENT after the liability order I simply had to struggle and get it paid
as for the copy and paste thread from Chall
if you have access to the child support booklets (I found it on their website)
if you are in arrears they are entitled to take 40% of earnings until arrears are paid
For me there was simply no way round paying what i owed and what I was totally WILLING to pay be it over a longer period if possible
Well said Matthew. ‘p’doffmum’ believes all “fathers”as she put it are the same as the deadbeat who knocked her up. She doesn’t understand that decent fathers exist out there and want to support their children.
It’s her children I feel sorry for.
I am fully aware that there are decent fathers out there! But you can’t seriously be suggesting that a father who racks up thousands of pounds in unpaid child support is a father who wants to support his child/children??? It does come across like you are all willing to support your offspring, just so long as you don’t have to struggle a little when it comes to money!
And there is no need to feel sorry for my child, I provide everything MY child needs without hesitation.
There are many ways to rack up thousands of pounds in unpaid child support when you factor in the CSA’s method for handling arrears. You could be paying the PWC direct, only for the CSA to ignore all payments and insist you haven’t paid a penny. You could be a new case, as the CSA always drags its feet with new cases specifically so it can ‘rack up thousands of pounds worth of arrears’ and then use a DEO to recover that money, thus massaging the figures each quarter for how much it has recouped in arrears. Or, of course, you have the fathers who have been paying for years, only to receive demands out of the blue for thousands because the CSA has decided they owe more, and that money should be backdated to an arbitrary date they have plucked from the ether.
If you believe that any father who has arrears is a bad one, you’re not opening your eyes to what is going on out there.
Believe me my eyes are wide open! Contrary to what u might think, i am not a man-hater lol. I simply think that if a father has full intentions of supporting his children financially then there are definately ways around said problems.
For instance, if u have been paying the PWC directly then the CSA really have no need to be involved (people don’t use the CSA for fun, it’s usually because the father is reluctant or unwilling to contribute)
If u are a new case and they are dragging thier heels then as a responsible parent u could be setting the money aside so it’s there when needed.
And as for the last one, if a father has been paying for years and the CSA say they haven’t been paying enough then in all honesty it’s the PWC that has requested a review of what the father has been paying, in which case they are abusing what could be a very helpfull system for the people who have, as u said “been knocked up by a deadbeat”
You are all too quick to blame the CSA for the problems u all have. If used correctly and fairly it shouldn’t cause many problems.
I feel sorry for the genuine fathers out there who have the nightmare of a vendictive ex who only wants as much as she can get, but that shouldn’t lead to an uproar about a service that could help the people who really would have no other way…..
I must say i went into a relationship with someone with kids so can see it from both sides, however my partner was denied access to his child for many years because the mother was angry with him for leaving and not loving her. they only stayed together for the sake of his daughter in the first place. He paid initially and then when she wouldn’t let him see his daughter he stopped paying. very reasonable in my opinion.
we have been together for 8 years and have paid in the region of £400 per month for regular and arreas. Really! The arrears were so far out, I’m sure they just picked a figure out of a hat. We wrote to local MP’s to get it rectified even the top dog at the csa and can only adjust an assessment when it is in favour of the parent with care. Utter crap.
We had no choice but to pay it. 8 years on and my partner now only owes £10k in arrears only. The daughter is now coming up on 20, and is studying at uni. She has her student loan but its not enough to cover general living. we asked to pay the money direct to the child to be told we can’t. its owed to the mother.
The mother can spend it on whatever she wants, (mostly getting drunk and going on holidays) whilst her daughter can be struggling at uni with basic food and no money for general quality of life and thats acceptable.
The really funny thing is its still my partner that is frowned upon. given the circumstances the CSA and the mother you are both a joke. Utter joke.
Ref the comment about people not using the csa for fun, REALLY!!!! have a word, most of them use the CSA to screw the fathers for more money than is being offered. because they get greedy and want more.
Yes he should of paid then he wouldn’t of got into arrears, but would you pay for someone the mother wouldn’t let you see.
The CSA has no consistancy, bringing out all these old rule, new rule, and moving the goal post at every opportunity. And as for the 2 year arrears repayment term. If thye CSA was took to the court of human rights I know who would win that argument. Yep not the CSA.
Hi there. I’m a Mum of 4. Over the years, my 3 daughters received no help from their father. Years ago I went to the CSA because the father cancelled our private arrangement which was really only a token gesture. When they finally caught up with him, he went on disability , so NIL to pay. Fast forward some years. New partner, we had a son and when we split, he took our son, but knowing my history with CSA and my low wage, said he could provide for our son and not require money from me. (He’s a successful business man). Well, in 2010 he did apply to the CSA and I duly paid each month. 6 months ago I got into financial trouble, which I’m still in and yes, hands up I now how arrears of £1000, depending who I speak with. I was briefly on speaking terms with my sons father, who boasted about how well he was doing financially. I openly said I was struggling. He wants the arrears ASAP. I feel under pressure from him and the CSA. Although my other children are more or less grown up now, they only have me for support, father disappeared , and so knowing my son is well cared for, my priority is to support my daughters. I have asked for a longer time to pay what I owe, but I don’t hold out much hope. I have friends, all fathers, who I’ve seen almost broken, because of this cold hearted and merciless system. It’s draconian. I am able to negotiate with everyone bar the CSA. The only ones in my situation who suffer, are not my son, but my daughters. Yours disillusioned ):