CSA is unreliable and totally useless
I had originally contacted the csa to tell them i want to pay maintainance for my children only to be told that i cant do this and that my ex has to put a claim in.
I then waited months for them to contact me, when they did the 1st letter received stated that “after several attempts to contact you with no success we will take action to recover money for payments by way of AEO”.
I contacted them to advise them that the letter i received was the first that i had, i have no problems with paying for my children so i sent in my wage slips and them waited and waited for a breakdown of howmuch i would need to pay.
After contacting them on several occassions i finally received a breakdown which asked for £400pw which is way more than i earn so yet again contacted them and had to wait even longer for this to be ammended.
Eventually i receive a letter telling me that my payments are late, i contacted them again and was told that i need to be paying £460 per month and £260 of that is arrears so as you do you phone again to query this only to be told that the breakdown explains this. The breakdown that i have yet to receive may detail all the information but is only helpful if you receive it and if not your oblivious to whats happening.
So after a lengthy discussion on the phone and telling them that the amount they are asking for is financially not manageable and would meen that i wont be able to pay my rent and travel to work let alone struggle with all my bills which is just the normal stuff and nothing excessive and to live/survive on only to be told that child support and child support arrears are priority and come before anything else, where is the logic for this and the fact that if you cant pay your rent you have no where to live, if you cant get to work you have no income which then meens you cant pay for your children…
So who puts these structures in place and when you phone most of the time you end up talking to someone who has no life experience or skills and has just been programmed to tell you what the screen says then they say they will get all the relevant documents and paperwork out to you and six weeks later you have still not received anything and when you call for the god knows what umpteenth time to be told that they dont have any details of your last conversation and that your case hasnt been asigned to anyone.
Where do i turn and who to for help in sorting this out as its not even worth complaining to them as nothing happens as i have done this also already.
3 thoughts on “CSA is unreliable and totally useless”
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Hi,
First off, don’t deal with them on the phone – unless you are recording the conversation!! and NO, you don’t need to inform them you are recording it, as it is for your personal use…..to use as evidence against them at a later date!! (sorry, to negotiate with them at a later date!!)
Ask for everything in writing, and send all correspondence to them by registered/signed for post.
Second – request a copy of all your information under the data protection act (there is a template letter on http://www.afairercsaforall.co.uk) it will cost £10 but is worth it!
Third – Once you are armed with your information from them, go through it with a fine tooth comb! and then consult your local MP. In the mean time, log a complaint on their website with all the issues that you have. If you do this on their website, you will get a dated/timed acknowledgement!
Fourth – Good luck! you will need it. They are a nightmare to deal with, and will lie about policies & procedures just to get their own bonuses up! They couldn’t care less about you or your children!
Not fit for purpose! Run by incompetent oafs! A National scandal!…………and our great politicians want us to live in the Big Society.
Message to Cameron and all M.P.’s………………..Get stuffed!
In the past month i have started recieving child maintenance, which took four month to set up because of the incompetance of the csa and my ex partner. The system they use is absolutely useless and you are repeatedly told one thing only to be told something completely different by another member of staff. The only way, it seems, to get through to them is to constantly get on their backs every single day until they eventually give in and actually do something about it.