CSA made unfair assessment on my army salary

May 19, 2010

Im in the Armed forces and recently seperated from partner due to her constant drunkeness, verbal and physical abuse and smashing of property in the house.

The CSA contacted me in March asking for pay statements etc, I promptly returned these and then received a payment schedule of £670 a month when I questioned this as Im in the Army not a footballer, I discovered they had taken into calculation things they were not meant to. Also I had an overpayment one month and this was used in there assessment which I am currently disputing as there calculation is made over the year and I was overpaid one month there response was if you had done over time we take that into consideration, In the forces we are paid a salary and we dont get overtime.

So if they can use this over payment in there assessment why arent they taking into consideration the school boarding fees of one of my children of £174 a term and his flights home every half term on average £250-300 a flight. Also I am left with Marital Debt which equates to £600 a month in payments for a car and other belongings all of which she has. So on an average month I am expected to pay on average £1600 in total towards my ex wife.

Whilst I agree I should pay for my children I am effectively paying for one of them twice (with the boarding and travelling costs) and when I approached the CSA about this they said if he wasnt boarding he would be living with his mother. I dont want to get away with not paying for my kids I just want them to be fair and consider that my monthly wage over 3 quarters of it is going towards my ex and the children, at which point does my feeding and life come into this or am I expected to take it on the chin.

Also to add insult to injury whilst I am still paying this extorionate amount of money she has dissapeared off the face of the earth so I dont even get to see my children.

Now If I was a violent husband I would understand getting screwed over the fact of the matter is she was the one who was violent and Im still the one who is having Bias assessments made against me, 61 suicides were attributable to the CSA last year if this carries on much longer I will probably be adding to that statistic.

Comments

  • graeme says:

    Hi Simon

    I am ex navy so I will try and offer the best advice that i can.

    1. Ask for a breakdown of your account.

    2. Contact Army Legal Services. They will put you in contact with the correct organisations to help you.

    3. They should only be taking the percentage of your salary for the number o children you have.ie 15% for 1 child, 20% for 2 and 25% for 3.

    4. They are not interested in things like boarding school fees or flights home etc.

    5. Fight them all the way.

    6. Contact your local MP. Get them involved etc.

    7. Raise your case to a complaints level to ensure that the correct maintenance level is set and adhered to.

    8. Keep a meticulous record of your dealings with them. Copy yopur MP into all your correspondance etc.

    Unfortunately you are an easy target for them. They will go direct to the Paymaster General and deduct the money directly from your wages.

    As I said Army Llegal Services will be your first port of call.

    Good luck.

    Graeme

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