Can the CSA claim arrears when I can prove I never missed a payment?

December 14, 2014

The advice I need is in 2004 I went maintenance direct with my ex when my youngest daughter was born. We agreed to go maintenance direct as it was beneficial to her and to my youngest girls mum who was on benefits at the time my youngest was born (I had already split with her because of the fact all her tax credits etc stopped when i moved in and the CSA took £420 a month off me for my oldest and only daughter at the time.

I had no choice to move out as we couldnt afford to stay together as I was expected to support her as well as her daughter from a previous marriage, this didnt affect my CSA DEO though and I was told that the multi millionaire my oldest girls mum had married didnt change the situation either.

I was maintenance direct with my oldest girls mum until 2006 when she knew i was about to get made redundant and there were rumours that it was going to be a large pay out,(she had already divorced and took the millionaire to the cleaners at this point)she contacted the CSA and told them I hadnt given her anything for the last nearly 2 years, the first I knew was when I got paid and had a DEO for over £500.

I had been giving £200 a month each the whole time to both of my girls mums. I had proof of most payments and told her i was going to try do her for fraud so we went back to direct pay and this was the case until 2010 when out of spite she reopened the case with the CSA because my youngest girls mum called her a greedy b**ch on facebook because she had asked me for an extra £600 towards a holiday my oldest wanted to go on.

I found this out after it had all happened (oldest girls mum now with owner of large taxi firm and driving a BMW X5 with private plates at this point) The CSA went straight to a DEO for over £600 a month just for my oldest girl and didnt include my youngest. This took 9 months to rectify and I had to get an mp involved. when it was sorted i was given a new assesment for £250 a month to cover both girls and was told then there were no arrears when I asked because they were trying to see if I owed money on top of what I had paid when we were maintenance direct. I have the letter still giving a breakdown of how it was worked out for both girls and it says nothing of arrears and this was from a divisional complaints officer.

Due to an error by the CSA they have been paying the full £250 to my oldest girls mum for the last 6 months and while trying to sort this out they have told me this week that I owe £34000 in arrears for my oldest for the period of 2004 to 2010. This is based on a job that I was made redundant from in 2006 and doesnt include my youngest or my lower paid job and mortgage.

I have a letter from 2006 saying that they have removed the nearly 10000 arrears that was put on then when I proved her lieing about not being paid for nearly 2 years and that were in a maintenance direct agreement.

Sorry for retelling a lot but the advice I need is can the CSA claim arrears for a period I was maintenance direct and can prove I never missed a payment, is wrongly assessed and was only put on by mistake when I was trying to get back the money they overpaid my oldest girls mum when they were giving her my youngest girls money aswell?

They seem to have no idea what they are doing and I am seriously worried that they will try to make me pay back this money at that rate as everything that has happened from 2004 to 2010 was agreed without the CSA. Will the 2006 letter carry any weight?

I was led to believe before that they could not back date a private agreement and in 2010 was told there was no arrears for this period but I cant find that in writing, only the new assessment after the mp was involved.

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