Browse > Home / CSA Complaints / CSA lies and, in my opinion, theft - child support agency hell

CSA lies and, in my opinion, theft

October 27, 2011

Sorry about the strong title but i really am at my wits end with this agency. Around march 2010 i moved to london to start a new job after 2 years of living with my parents with depression (wont go into that) I received a letter of the csa saying i owed them £8500 in arrears. Not to worry i thought i want to pay its my duty. A week later another letter saying it was actually £11500. Again not to worry i will pay, and so i did. My weekly payment was at the time £139, which i could afford, just. In January 2011 i received another letter saying my payment was to come down to £104 weekly, great i thought my arrears are coming down so is my payment. In the letter it also stated that my payment would come down again by £5 a week from jan 2012, not much but it helps.

Anyway here is where the story starts,and remember i am not one of those dads who shys away from paying, i want to pay. So i phoned them up on the 5th october this month to change my address, and to confirm my payment would still be coming down in January. Yes they confirmed me, thanks for calling. great i thought, until this week.

I recieved a letter stating my new weekly payment would be £77, again great i thought. I knew that my arrears had come down considerably, as £60 a week as stated in previuos letters adds up. 18 months at £60 a week = roughly £4680 of my original balance of £11500. Makes sense to me. I phoned again and was informed my arrears were £2551 for one child and £179 for another. Again great, but i just wanted to confirm.

Today i wake up to a letter stating that my arrears are £9979, and my payment is to RISE to £182 weekly. After a lengthy call this morning, all i got was well thats what the system says deal with it. I nett £360 a week, how am i supposed to survive on whats left in london with rent so high etc.

My real question is, how can they get this so wrong, i.e the arrears, even a child could type numbers into the calculator and see these figures do not add up. From what i can see basically is because i actuallty want to pay they just want to lie and make up figures as thy think they have got me.

I am seriously considering going to the police about this, i know they will not do anything, but seriously someone has to be held accountable for this. If this was a loan company it would be loan sharking.

Also when i phoned them this morning they stated that i had not been paying until august last year, funny, on my payslips it clearly states my first payment started in march. Where are the missing payments?

Again I want to reiterate that i am willing to pay, but i seriously do not know where to go anymore, and all help would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to post this in a forum.

Many thanks
in desperation

Adrian

Written by Adrian Barrett · Filed Under CSA Complaints 

Related CSA Posts

Comments

  • John says:
    October 27, 2011 at 10:40 am

    My friend you are too trusting of the incompetent, shambolic oafs of the CSA!

    You are in the system and therefore you are an easy target. You pay because you want to pay. No questions asked. That is exactly how the CSA want you to be subservient to them!

    I have had what I can only call 11 yeras of shit from these people! They are incompetent beyond belief. They repeatedly target those who are trapped in their sites, whilst there are some people overpaying, some people under paying and many not paying at all! £3.7 billion pounds remains uncollected as those people are difficult targets and require effort to track down!

    So! They target the ones in the system by inventing arrears to make it look good for them, their staff bonuses and the treasury. Wake up!

    Do not contact them by phone. get eveything in writing. The first thing that you must do is make a complain to the CSA about the arrears. Complain to the Independent Case Examiners office and go to your local M.P. to tell him that you believe that the CSA are inventing arrears!

    I too want to provide for my children (not their mother). The question is what has it got to do with politicians and incompetent civil servants. You need to cause these people as much trouble as they are causing you, and if there is evidence of fraud in your case you should consider a complaint to the police!

  • joanne shier says:
    October 28, 2011 at 1:49 am

    Completely agree with john, start complaining, mp, ice and complaints department, always do this via email and recorded mail. We did this when we started asking questions, they wanted 8000 from us within a year for a child that wasn’t in education anymore or lived at home, on no figures from us….they assessed my partner without his knowledge…messed with the wrong nrpp. Stop being so nice and start fighting back, let them be aware that you are not going to accept their crap anymore x

  • Howard says:
    October 28, 2011 at 2:19 am

    If you toss a coin twice & it comes up heads both times, you put it down to luck. If it comes up heads 100 times you suspect the coin… The naive amongst us may believe that the CSA staff are there to assist NRP’s to pay the “right amount” but are incompetent. I suspect that the truth is nothing of the sort. Five years of dealing with the CSA has raised the suspicion that the CSA is a fundamentally deceitful & dishonest organisation. No-one can get things so consistently wrong (always on the side of an over-assessment). It could be that the staff are unintentionally incentivised to act dishonestly by the promise of bonuses, or even just keeping their job by meeting targets. If you are at the end of trying your MP, or the CSA’s processes & procedures appeals etc then seriously consider this: Go to the police. Anyone in a public office who intentionally lies to the public in the course of their duties in order to get a personal benefit (bonus, keeping their job, etc) may be guilty of a criminal offence of misuse of a public office. If enough people go to the police, and make that fact public (I intend to do this via my MP), then the police will be forced to investigate. Good luck.

  • Stephen says:
    August 16, 2016 at 9:20 am

    Been paying via a private arrangement. Had 5 letters on one day from the csa, all stating different amounts I should be paying. I call them and explain I pay direct via bank transfer and they tell me to ignore the letters, computer error. I get an abusive phone call from them, a man asking why I’ve not been paying, i inform him I have and he says ‘dont lie to me!’ I inform him I’ve never paid through the csa and have a private arrangement, he says he’ll call me back in ten and never does. Get a default letter stating I need to pay 40 a week, I call and tell them how much I earn and again explain my private arrangement and again get told to ignore the letter.
    This happens a couple of more times, same thing, told to ignore the letter. Then I’m told I have arrears of 17 thousand pounds.
    Unbelievable.

    • >