Child Support Agency doesn’t pay money it collects

January 24, 2012

After months of waiting for CSA to get in touch with my ex-partner, they finally managed to have his wages garnished from end of July 2011. I got my first payment in September paid into a bank account that I had already told them I no longer used. The payments stopped coming and I contacted them in October and they told me that they had not recieved anything from my ex. Since there was a garnish order in place, noone thought about contacting my ex’s employers. In October my ex told my son that maintanance paymente were being deducted weekly from his wages. My ex-showed ny son his wage slips.

I called CSA and that’s when they started getting in touch with my ex-‘s employers. After a couple of calls to them, a cheque was finally send to them by my ex’s employers a week before xmas. When I contacted them about the payment around the 10th of January they told me that someone had made a typing error in entering my new bank account details. Noone bothered ringing me about this . I only knew when I had contacted them. Prior to recieving my first payment in September, I had given my new bak account deatils to four people over the phone, and I had completed a form with my new account details in black and white. Noone bothered to double check with what I had written. When I contacted them on the 10th of January, they told me the money would be in my account in 3days’if all goes well’. I don’t know what they meant by that,they had my money and they have my bank account deatails , what could possibly go wrong?

I called them on 15 january, A lady I spoke to promised to call me back as she was looking at my case as she said it would cost me a lot of money if I hold. Noone contacted me. Today I have just contacted them,telling them that the three days have lapsed and still no payment has been made to me, only to be told that they don’t know when they will be able to pay me the cheque they recieved in December. Although payments were being collected weekly from my ex’s wages, I still haven’t been paid what was collected in September, October, November and December and I don’t know why they haven’t made an effort to pay the cheque they collected in December which covers September and October payments.

It’s almost a month now since they got that money. I wonder, just to how many children this is happenning.

Comments

  • chall says:

    Quote Molly; It’s almost a month now since they got that money. I wonder, just to how many children this is happening.

    I would hazard a guess that your case is not the only one…

    You could escalate your case to a complaint, you can email the office dealing with your case from this link https://www2.dwp.gov.uk/csa/v2/en/contact/index.asp OR you can write. Keep copies of all emails OR correspondence and post it signed for.

    chall ~afairercsaforall

  • lynne says:

    my ex pays the csa every week by means of a deduction of earnings order. i only sporadically receive payments of varying amounts and when payments are missed i never get them back.
    the csa are beyond incompetent and they tell lies. they even complained about me phoning to question where the money was going and told me the longer they are on the phone the less time they have to do their job and consequently the payments would be further delayed

  • j says:

    This isnt the csa its an open forum so don’t give names/details etc especially of children.

    Don’t deal with the csa by phone, everything in writing, sent recorded, keep the receipts.

    Copy your MP into everything and try and get them involved as your advocate.

    Make a formal complaint about any decision you are unhappy with from the outset as time limits are involved. Always go for an appeal tribunal asap following the internal process.

    Get a copy of your Data Protection prints from the outset so you know what you are dealing with, again follow the correct procedure in wording your request to get ALL information, send it to the right department, send the correct fee.

    Don’t be afraid to complain about any csa staff, or their superiors if you feel you have just cause.

    Remember the process, internal complaint, ‘independent’ case examiner (the csa protection department), appeals tribunal, parliamentry and health service ombudsman through your mp for maladministration.

  • Alice says:

    it is likely that the agency were unaware that the account details were incorrect until you contacted them and they checked them with you, once the error was corrected they should have been able to release the money to the correct account and pending bank clearance time that should have meant the money would appear in your account in approx 3 banking days.

    If the money had been paid out to another person’s account given that the details had been entered onto the system incorrectly and was not returned to the agency by that account holder or bounced back by the bank if it was an invalid account number the agency would have to claim the money back – I know from a previous job that money bounced back by a bank can take up to 40 days to be returned to source. This of course should not mean that you should be made to wait for the money to be returned to the agency. It would mean that the case worker would need to refer the matter to another department for the agency to pay the money to you and this would take longer. I think your best course of action would be to contact them asap and have your case escalated to a manager or formal complaint as this may speed things up.

    If a DEO is issued and the NRP is paid weekly it does not mean that the employer will pay it to the agency weekly. An employer will deduct the money weekly but has the option to pay it to the agency monthly the same as they do with Tax and NI deductions, they should pay the agency by the 19th of the month after the deductions are taken from the employee so anything deducted in September should have been paid to the agency by 19th of October. If an employer does not pay the money to the agency they in turn cannot pay it out to the PWC – this of course does not take away from the problem with the payment made in December being outstanding as this is an error the agency has made with your account details.

  • j says:

    “Alice on January 27th, 2013 12:57 am

    it is likely that the agency were unaware that the account details were incorrect until you contacted them and they checked them with you, once the error was corrected they should have been able to release the money to the correct account and pending bank clearance time that should have meant the money would appear in your account in approx 3 banking days.”

    So tell me Molly did you get the money in 3 days like ‘alice’ suggested? As ‘alice’ works for the csa I’m sure she is right, why don’t you check your account again.
    Actually you will spend lots of time wasting time while ‘alice’ will tell you how its ‘supposed’ to work when we all know it isnt working.
    Stop wasting time, start the formal complaints process as I previously suggested, make sure you have a copy of your data prints so you know whats going on.
    These people really are a disgusting waste of space, nrp’s are having money taken off them and pwc’s (you) are not getting it, its all a big scam, make sure your MP is aware, make as much of a fuss as you can and dont do it on the phone which they can deny.
    Like I said, follow the process, yours is not an isolated case (is it ‘alice’) there are loads like you, just read the regular posts on here.
    Good luck.

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