CSA never seems to be fair or honest

May 5, 2011

My husband has children from a previous marriage and during his first few years of paying the amount was horrific. He was left with all the debts from his previous marriage. Signed over the house that he and his ex owned so his kids had a home. He was in the military at the time and we were ok to start with but then all his bills started bouncing as his overdraft was used up, so the CSA applied for a deduction of earnings but the military felt that they were asking too much and only agreed a certain amount.

The minute he left the military they whacked him with his arrears which he agreed to pay off, at the same time he started a new job and they decided on a DOE again and just took what they wanted. Then decided that this was not sufficient and got a CCJ against him. He then moved and changed jobs, phoned them and they agreed he should pay the arrears and they would be in touch once this had been done. Stupidly we thought that this would be ok until out of the blue we get an enforcement letter demanding over £10k. So we are now back to square one paying a ridiculous amount that we can’t afford.

We have a little girl now and they even took her Child Benefit into account as income. I have no problem with my husband paying to ensure his children and clothed, fed and housed but his ex is always receiving a benefit or salary they can’t use. Yet his 2 eldest have both passed their driving tests and one of them has a car and they all took dancing lessons twice a week. I just want to pay my bills and not live in fear everytime we get a new letter through. I know he has a reponsibilty but the CSA are heartless. When he asked how he was supposed to feed and house his child living with him with the amount they have left him they said it wasn’t their problem but it will be when it gets to the stage that the bill bounces.

They have allowed us £530 pm to pay our remaining rent, council tax, utilities, car maintenance, food etc.

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