CSA is a total mess
March 11, 2015
I have been dragged through the mud by the CSA the last year.
I cannot pay off arrears no matter how much I pay. When I pay off what they say I owe they recalculate and I owe more.
I am also paying off arrears based on my current wage for a time I was claiming JSA. They refuse to talk to the DWP to confirm the date my claim stopped and refuse to take my letters from the DWP as evidence. Again this is added as arrears.
Every time I phone up I get a different figure for the arrears.
Latest mess was they claim I called them in January and told them my partner and children had moved out. My partner and children still live with me and I certainly made no calls to them in January, yet more arrears and another wrong calculation.
They also gave very personal details to my ex-wife about my partner and my living arrangements. Details such as my partner is a stay at home housewife and doesn’t have a job.
Since your partners income is not taken in the calculations this information is irrelevant and very personal. I believe they gained this from tax credits.
They never call back, never call the home phone and never write to me.
I have been upfront from the start and NEVER missed a payment.
A hopeless situation as incompetence is put in charge of clearing up incompetence.
Laura Hudson liked this on Facebook.
Bhav Patel liked this on Facebook.
I cannot stress enough how much everyone should get there MP’s involved .. write to them .. maybe I’m lucky I have a good one where I live ..but I got my own personal adviser, got the whole case revised and even had an offer of compensation .. I know ever bodies cases are different .. but the more MP’S get to hear of such cases the more pissed off they get with the system may be things will change … also the general election is coming up … good luck …
Maybe if you directly took responsibility for your kids CSA wouldn’t need to be involved? Realistically the money you owe is not to the Csa but to your kid since CsA is only a “middle man” agency that has been set up to provide Minimum basic child maintenance since its hard for human being to face REAL cost of raising a child and simply be responsible. I’m just highlighting the concept here then everyone’s story is different of course but I don’t see how 10-15% of INCOME (because of course assets and dividend are not taken into consideration) taking is actually enough to face or provide the best available for a child.
Like I say every case is different and I’m not ruling out that you shouldn’t have to pay for your kids because yes you should there a big responsibility.although I believe that the Csa also do not believe in people been able to move on in life for example they should still take in to consideration that the absent parent may work hard to keep a roof over your own head and the child(s) when they come to stop.im not saying everybody’s same because quite frankly I think it’s the people who refuse to pay that make it hard for the rest
get the fuck out
Csa dragged me through he’ll too. Only I had joint custody and pretty much gave my kids everything I could. My ex was bitter told them I wasn’t contributing when I was. And they thought it was a good Idea to take 800 pounds a month off of me. I nearly lost my home my job I gave up my car. And through it all it was my children who suffered I couldn’t do anything because csa wouldn’t listen to me at all. I had to get a court order to prove I was having my girls 50% of the time. And they still wouldn’t listen it took the prospect of my ex losing her babysitter , and the love of my daughters who gave there mum hell for screwing me over. It’s been 7 years since then and it still hurts how close I came to losing my beautiful daughters. Csa are scum I was and have always been the better parent and they wouldn’t listen to me at all.
Lovely comment Fadela, but IF you knew my case you would maybe think differently. I was pushed out of the marriage with nothing. I lost my home, my belongings, my car and was given two black bags of clothes that I slept rough with.
Of course the precious agency takes nothing like that into account. Just a weekly/monthly sum. For your information I was paying over £500 a month till my business went bust. Far more than the agency requires.
Anyway what department do you work for in the CSA?
Csa are a load of bollocks, they told me 12 year ago that I had to prove my ex was working and send them photos, so I’ve never had a penny for my daughter and then they write to me to tell me it will now cost me money if I need to use them and they have wrote to my daughters father to tell him that he still has to pay glad they know were he is, then 2week ago they sent me a second letter to remind me its changing telling me we’ve wrote to Mr S Almond , Mr Who, Mr Almond is my husband not my daughters father there f**king useless, I’m the Mum and been screwed over by them.
Fadela Seddini – WOW!
The CSA are so generic and treat all guys like they are evil.
Maybe thats how you view the world too perhaps?
The CSA is shutting down for many reasons, one being that it is set up all wrong. Good honest working fathers get the book thrown at them and devious waster fathers run scott free!
By relvealing your partners details the CMS (Child Maintenance Service) as they’re now called have committed a breach of the Data Protection Act. You/your partner need to lodge an official complaint, it can be done online or in writing, preferably in writing via recorded delivery as they have to sign for it and therefore can’t deny they ever got your/your partners complaint. Avoid submitting a complaint online as funny enough they ‘lose’ these email from time to time.
Today I authorised my partner to act on my case on my behalf. I can’t deal with it any more and am just accepting more arrears. I have exhausted complaints and although I might win a victory that they are truly incompetent that we all know I will still owe money.
I have paid the latest lump sum and fully expect them to invent further arrears.
I have also got an earful from the ex-wife who has been told that the latest arrears were caused by me not giving accurate information to the CSA. Yet my paperwork, the Tax credit paperwork etc says I told the truth.
What it must be to be a civil servant. Do a rubbish job, hide behind made up rules and not be accountable to anyone if you make a mistake. Top it off and get a pension that most of us private sector workers could only dream of.
Screwed over again, and sure it won’t be the last.
Definitely complain to your MP. csa told me the trouble when you pay your arrears off is tgat by the time you’ve revieved a letter and Made the payment, a week or two has gone by and therefore you will have built up more arrears. Basically the only way you will ever get out of arrears is not to pay it all off at once. Csa also told me that the way calculations are made is so complicated that most of tge staff struggle to understand it! It’s a total sham and impossible to understand. From what I’ve been told the New system coming into place should be better
Ever thought that most of us do take responsibility. A lot of ex’s just want to screw us over. I was paying her directly never missed a payment then one day recieved a phone call from CSA. nobody on here is debating weather we should pay for our kids, we are just fed up of tge way we are treated by csa and money grabbing exs