CSA payments for a child that is not mine

April 25, 2012

About 4 years ago i was told by a girl i had met in a bar that she was pregnant. Long and short of it is she had the baby despite my concerns, and i mistakenly signed the birth certificate. When she relised that there was no chance of a relationship thats when she went to CSA. I was already paying £250 a month and had done so for approximately 6 months (these were made from my bank account to hers). CSA contacted me stating that i would have to make a back payment. I was informed by a solicitor that they couldnt do this and when CSA were approached they claimed it was at their discretion and demanded money.

Subsequently a deductions from earnings was taken averaging in excess of £600 a month.

Roll on 6 months.. after a heated arguement with the childs mother she told me the child wasn’t mine and that i would never see him again. I told her to inform the CSA, she didn’t.

I told CSA several times but they claimed as i signed the birth cert there was nothing that i could do.

As i was paying almost £600 i had to work more hours just to afford to survive, so as long as i was working those hours i could not have the money reduced. The hours i was working was crazy and my health severly suffered and i was forced to cut my hours back to a 40hr week. I could afford to live, I considered quitting my job, i had to sell my car and defaulted on rent for my flat. I ended up having to move back in with my parents.

After 3 months of this i was able to get my case reviewed. They relunctly decreased the amount to about £360 a month. I continuely contact CSA and inform them that this child is not mine and that the mother is refusing to do a DNA test (of which i paid £500 for and she refused to do).

Every March the deductions of earnings run out and in April, approximately 10th i am contacted and have to make a payment over the phone.. then when i am paid they take a double payment as they claim i am in arrears, when i call up they apoligise and say they will decrease the next few payments…. Who can afford to pay over £900 in one month?? i certainly cant.

This has gone on for 3 years now and they yet again April has come around and they have done it again.

To rub salt in the wounds the mother of the child has asked for the money to be reviewed again so i will be back to square one… but this time it wont be just me destitute it will be my new partner and our young child.

CSA dont appear to follow any guidelines… they seem to take as much money as they want ruining and wrecking lives as they go on.

Further to all this i have submitted a complaint to the information commision as when i requested my details held on their system under the freedom of information and i was shocked to receive someone elses details.. i called them up and they asked me to destroy the records i had but could not tell me where mine had been sent.

We need to take action, this cant be tollerated. You all need to write letters to your MPS hightlighting your ordeals. The CSA are suppose to be a Government funded organistation so should have to abide by some rules.

Comments

  • jay. says:

    If she refuses a DNA, shouldn’t the case close? I would see a solicitor asap and demand one via court order, you can’t go on like this. Write a letter to the csa with concerns you’re not the child’s father and want a DNA test, and have been asking for one for some time, with your reasons why you dispute parentage. Good luck

  • rach says:

    you need to get yourself to your local magistrates court and fill in a form for a declaration of parentage hearing. she will be ordered to take a dna test and if she refuses the magistrate will issue you with a declaration of non parentage meaning the csa HAS to close the case against you good luck!

  • Kieran's childs mother says:

    Kieran,
    Your case sounds a lot like mine. Oh! Wait it is mine!! Maybe everyone should read the other side of the story.
    I never asked to have your baby, I found myself pregnant and decided that I couldn’t do anything else but keep the baby (a decision that I am very glad I made, our son is the best thing that ever happened to me, his father however is the worst). We had a conversation (after we eventually spoke about the pregnancy) and I asked you if you wanted to be involved you said you did and that you would help me to raise the baby. Please do not kid yourself that I wanted a relationship with you, after the way you behaved when you first found out I was pregnant that ship sailed (I’ll keep that off of the public forum) and your hardly God’s gift. I just wanted you to be there for me and the baby. Despite you being increasingly difficult during my pregnancy I let you be at the birth of your son and gave you rights by putting you on the birth certificate, however although you were very keen to have your rights you weren’t really too keen to take any responsibility. You didn’t pay for any of the many things that your son needed and “I was already paying £250 a month and had done so for approximately 6 months” Really?? Our son was born in January and between then and April I received £200, also the £50 per month that was promised to go into a bank account for our son’s future was never set up, therefore you were stealing from your own son. Don’t worry he gets that money now and more! In April I was forced to contact the CSA because you were constantly messing me around were money was concerned. The case was only backdated to the date when they contacted you and the payments were £380 a month; there were a couple of payments that were a bit more than that but that was because the CSA had taken so long to calculate payments. So between the birth of our son and July I received the grand total of £200- I was very careful not to spend it all at once on the endless clothes, nappies, milk, bottle, toys not to mention contributing to the bills and my parents’ house (yes I too had to move back to my parents too) whilst on statutory mat pay.
    With regards to claiming that our child isn’t yours I have never said this (in a heated argument or not) and if you continue to say this I will have you done for slander. I have also never said that you can’t see him, you and your family cut ties when he was 3 months old and despite me offering contact to you and your family it has been thrown back in my face on several occasions. One little fact you should know it doesn’t matter if you are on the birth cert or not you are my son’s father and I can prove it so you would have to pay child maintenance anyway- because you are the other parent and equally responsible what part of that are we not understanding?? I have offered you a DNA test several times and even offered to pay half for it for no other reason but to clear my name and for my son when he asks me about his biological father when he is older. The CSA contacted me in Sep 2009 and I agreed to it, then when they heard nothing from you they wrote you a letter in Jan 2010 asking you about this and they never received a response. I have never refused a DNA test and I’m wondering why you seem to be reluctant to one? Is it because you’ve known he is yours all along but that would mean that you have to start being a proper father to him? If I was paying over £300 a month for a child that I thought wasn’t mine I would get it done- without a doubt!!! It’s funny how he was your son and you loved showing him off to your family until money became involved.
    With regards to you not being able to live, did you think about how me or your son was living? No you didn’t. And you have never paid £500 for a test, if you have I personally will get on the phone to the CSA tomorrow and ask where this money is gone and why haven’t they contacted me to do the test? My MP is involved in this anyway now, so I’ll get him to ask about that as well.
    Before Feb this year the case wasn’t reviewed for almost 18 months and I was happy to leave things as they were, however when the DEO ran out in January the employers weren’t given a copy of the new one which meant that a payment was missed, leaving me with one day to come up with over £300 for childcare. I work so I need to pay this to support MY family. This didn’t happen every year as Mr Given has stated just this year, he was contacted and he made a card payment, however the next month we were both told that Feb’s payment would be missed because it was too late to submit the DEO and could he make a card payment- he hung up with no concern as to how his son would live.
    I would like to point out that the I do find the CSA have the biggest bunch of incompetent people working there and I do genuinely feel for the responsible NRP’s out there that want to look after their children and are being dragged through them and squeezed for every penny they can get. If the NRP in my case actually helped me bring his son up there is no way I would have resorted to the CSA, it would certainly be easier if I didn’t have to use them.
    With regards to your recent threatening e-mail, where you continue to use your rights to threaten me with as I have already stated I work very hard for my family and I can only do this thanks to the amazing support network I have around me. No thanks at all to his father!
    With regards to making you and your partner destitute, this isn’t my aim I just want to look after our son and will continue to try and get every penny out of a father that doesn’t do anything else to support his son and doesn’t contribute in any other way.
    I find you very like the CSA Kieran- you both make it up as you go along!

  • l spencer says:

    You can buy a DNA test in home bargains it costs £99

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