CSA aren’t even co-operating properly with enforcement – how can I sort this shambles?

April 27, 2013

In August 2008 I contacted the CSA to put in a claim. After calling them every week upto December of that year, I finally had to put in complaint to get my case moved on, I also received a set payment of £25 as compensation (although I lost the chance to claim any of the payments from September to December even though this was the fault of the CSA). Apparently during the system upgrade my case had got stuck and had to go clerical to get moved on.

My ex is self employed and owns his own building company, so the CSA were unable to gain payments by a deduction to earnings. After approx 18 months of chasing them continuously, the ex giving them false information, and the case keep getting lost in the clerical system, I put in another couple of complaints and eventually had to go down the appeal route in 2009. This finally went to court in 2010 and was found in my favour (from £6 per week to £89, not much of a difference!) The CSA were then supposed to obtain this money for me, after more months of chasing this up, and putting in another complaint, the case got moved on to enforcement, and I eventually got payment for over £4,000 in arrears in February 2011 (paid over 3 payments agreed by the court).

Thinking that the CSA would now be on the ball, it was s hock to discover that once again my payments were not coming through and the CSA had recalculated them based on false figures. Once again I had to go through chasing them up, putting in complaints, going to Tribunal again etc.. Once this was finally sorted and payments agreed, the ex then put in a claim against paternity, and I had to get DNA testing done, despite the fact that my daughter was now 5 and he had never questioned this before. This was around May 2012, and this was the only time the CSA were pro active in contacting me (strangely enough it feels like they were on the ball whilst trying to prove I shouldn’t receive any maintenance, but not when they are supposed to be working for your child! Child Support Agency….)

As soon as the results came through in July proving paternity, they once again lost the case and nothing was done about chasing for payments. In September 2012 I contacted them again and they confirmed they had no records, I put in yet another complaint and finally received a call from my next caseworker who advised she was sending my case to assessment to calculate the arrears etc. After several more attempts for information I had to put in yet another complaint as my case had been lost again, I was assured the case would be expedited. I was told he should pay £46 per week plus arrears and I would receive a new payment schedule by the end of October. I was sent an updated payment schedule that showed he should pay £100 per week over 2 years to pay the weekly amount plus current arrears. I received approx. 6 payments for the £46 but nothing against the arrears. I chased this once again and was told it had got stuck in the system again, but that the arrears would now be sent to enforcement. I received a letter in Jan 2013 to advise this had been done.

By Feb 2013 the weekly payments had also stopped, and once again I contacted CSA Bolton, who advised these missed payments would also be sent through to enforcement. I have been chasing since then for an update on my case, and have been told several times that it was with enforcement etc., I have asked for updates from enforcement, but received no response. Yesterday 23rd April I finally got through to someone at Bolton who was honest and told me it had been lost in the system again, and she promised she would get enforcement to contact me. Enforcement called me a couple of hours later to advise that although the system showed Bolton had sent it through to them in January, they hadn’t sent the actual paperwork to them, and therefore nothing had been done. They also told me the missed payments from the year would have to treated as a new arrears case.

Finally thinking the case had moved on, I have just received another call from Bolton to advise me the case was with enforcement, had been since January, and totally contradicting everything the enforcement department had told me the day before. This case has been going on for 5 years, and I have spoken to at least 200 different case workers, and put in at least 8 complaints to enable to get the case moved on to the next level. Does anyone know how I can get this shambles sorted???

Comments

  • karen says:

    Ignore all these comments, as you can see they are so pathetic they are not worth responding to.

    join the facebook groups – child support agencies failings, if you want serious advice/support as you will get nothing on here apart from bullies and idiots!

  • Sally says:

    Hi there…. I realise emotions run high when CSA is involved!! I hate it and all it represents because its completely unfair and bias toward PWCs, however, not all PWC go to CSA through choice some are actually struggling to survive… But more than that BOTH parents SHOULD pay towards their child’s upbringing!!!

    The CSA victimise, bully and criminalise decent NRPs who do pay for their kids because the CSA staff are too lazy to make the effort to find the NRPs who don’t pay ANYTHING for their kids!!!

    Not all PWC are bad/greedy and not all NRPs are decent!! The CSA thrive on parents falling out because they can say/do what they like to NRPs/PWCs and get away with it…

    If the author has not received a penny to look after her child, what should she do?? If it was your daughter or sister, what advice would you give??

    I am the partner of a decent NRP who loves his kids and always paid but due to his ex’s greed for more money and jealousy of our relationship, she used the CSA to make our lives hell for almost 3 years…. But I don’t judge all PWCs as the same as her… I blame the CSA for the problems we all have relating to child maintenance!!

  • Sally says:

    P.s. @ Karen, your comments are not helping anyone either!!

  • John says:

    What happens between parents and their children is for them to sort out. (using legal services where necessary).

    It has absolutely nothing to do with the political ‘elite’, who are stakeholders in a ‘run for profit company’. i.e the CSA.

    Attempting to demonise and criminalise, nrp’s regarding their children is the lowest of the low.

    Todays’ political classic from Duncan Smith. ” Wealthy pensioners should give up their benefits”!

    We NEVER here of wealthy politicians EVER giving up ANYTHING!

    One rule for THEM! Different rules for US!

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