Child Support Agency takes 17 years to compensate single mother

March 4, 2011

After a 17 year long fight with the Child Support Agency, a single mother from Runcorn in Cheshire has finally received the compensation she was long overdue, it has been revealed.

During the 17 year timespan, the woman suffered from multiple errors on the behalf of the Child Support Agency, which resulted in her requests never being taken care of. She received her payment finally after a report was filed by an ombudsman about her case.

During the 17 years, the woman contacted the CSA many times, making dozens of phone calls and writing dozens of letters. She also complained to her local MP and the Secretary of State about how she was treated.

Understandably, she was left very frustrated when her calls and letters remained unanswered, although in a statement she urged parents experiencing similar problems to not give up fighting their case.

In the report filed by the ombudsman, severe criticisms were made. It was pointed out that the women requested support many times but the CSA completely failed her each and every time. The ombudsman also pointed out that her son is now grown up and receiving the money now does not make up for not receiving it when he was a child – which is when it would have been most important.

In the end, the women employed the help of a specialist lawyer, who threated the CSA with a judicial review, which seemed to be the turning point in her case. After the ombudsman’s report was filed, she received an apology, compensation and all owed payments plus interest and legal costs.

Comments

  • Karen B says:

    Well done, unfortunately the only way to win this is with a judicial review but finding a solicitor to take on the case is not easy and then theres the point about getting legal aid! I asked for a judicial review but obviously due to the fact the CSA offered me a very large sum of money as advance payment to stop me going to Watchdog, I had to take it to pay the debts off and my case was dropped, obviously but I have just won against the tribunal who throw my case out by complaining to the upper tribunal who agreed with my findings and therefore after 2 yrs I now have my appeal reinstated, waiting for hearing date now and the Tribunal have slated the CSA over not declaring the info that they held at the first appeal by not submitting it, when I was allowed to have it due to the data protection act, so now finally they will have to submit it to the appeal, so Mr W lets see how you get out of this one now?!

  • John says:

    If ever there was a case a case to support that the CSA system is not fit for purpose and flawed…………This is it!

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