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CSA set to force me to quit my job!!

Where to begin ………

Well here goes! .. It all started in May 2002 and has been ongoing for the last 10 years!

Basically, the usual .. 2 Kids and I left my Wife in September 2001 (wish I had years earlier!) and even though I moved back to my Parents I continued the payments for the Mortgage, Bills, Debts etc until our property was sold in August 2002 (so over 10 months worth of payments at £900 mth.

Eventually when the property sold I fought for 50% after the remainder of debts were paid etc and I thought we’d both move on, but no!

Ever since then the CSA claim that any monies paid by me were a ‘gift’ and can’t be used against my supposed arrears that have built up to £4600!

I have paid over the years via Direct Debit what they have ‘assessed’ I should pay until earlier this year (2011) when my mental ex contacted them to have me ‘re-assessed’ as I wasn’t paying enough! (says her that hasn’t worked since 2000!)

The CSA kindly decided that I MUST pay £604 per month via DOE (Deduction of Earnings) out of my £1460 take home pay, even though they’re aware that my Mortgage has been increased to £922 per month and my Council Tax is £100 per month, so what do I live on???

I have spent hours over the months talking to them but all I get in response is ‘ I understand, but it’s Government legislation’! … Tremendous!

So on the back of all this I seem to have little or no choice but to quit work and either try and work illegally or become self-employed in order to protect myself.

Before anyone comments I love my children and see them at weekends, also I’m not like some who ‘DON’T’ expect to maintain their children, but surely there has to be a limit and some common sense!

Thanks for nothing CSA,

Paul

25 thoughts on “CSA set to force me to quit my job!!

  1. I have got ths horrible feeling you are being charged under the old pre 2003 arrangements where they could take up to 40% of your income if you were in arrears. You dont say how old your kids are or how many years you have actually been paying arrears for. If you were under the post 2003 system as i was, the most they could take in basic maintenance for 2 kids would be 25% of your nett income plus what ever they want to take to clear off your arrears. My situation was almost identical to yours albeit me and my ex split up 2003 so the CSA didnt get proerly involved with me until 2004 and could only assess me via the new rules. Plus i had only the one child to pay for.

    It might pay you to take a look at your original assessment and take a close look at how much of your payments were actually arrears. If you have been paying maintenance via the CSA since 2002, the questions i have to ask are…. Are you still paying arrears??? There is a very good chance that over the last 9 years you have probably paid off your arrears years ago and they havent bothered to lower what you should pay accordingly. Has your maintenance ever been reduced to show this? Similar to you, i was paying £3250 of arrears at £85 every 4 weeks back to them on top of my regular maintenance. It turns out my arrears were cleared back in 2007 after 3 years yet they still kept taking the money regardless. So i emailed an enquiry to the CSA asking why i was still paying arrears after 7 years. Lo and behold it turns out i had indeed been overpaying to the tune of over £4k in surplus. As a result of this, my daughter having just turned 18 and still in full time education, the CSA reassessed me and realised that what i was owed exceeded what i had left to pay up to my daughters 19th birthday. So my payments were stopped completely. They still owe me money but i cant get it back until the case is closed next year. But at least im no longer paying the equivalent of a second mortgage out of wage any longer.

    The long and short of it is. Count how many arrears payments you have made since the CSA first started taking maintenance from you. Work out exactly when those arrears would have been paid off.Then work out how much surplus they have been taking illegally for the remaining time up until now. Dont let them try to fob you off. Its your money, not theirs. It took me 5 months of constant emails and phone calls to get where i am plus stepping up it up to the CSA complaints case officer before i finally got any joy. Demand a reassessment minus the arrears being taken and that arrears owed to you to be spread out over the remaining time to further reduce what you are expected to pay to them. Hopefully, you will get a result and a lower estimate. If you get nowhere with the CSA complaints case officer take your complaint to the next level. Tribunal! Get your MP involved if need be.It is after all, a “government agency”.

    You can get free advice from a few sources. The child maintenanace options website maybe worth a look. They do give free confidential advice and are not affiliated to the CSA in any way shape or form. It is a free phone number if you want to talk to someone. Unlike the CSA. Citizens advice bureaux another option. Most firms of Solicitors usually do free advice surgeries 1 night a week on a first come first served basis.

    My ex wife sounds just like yours. Sat at home on her lazy backside raking in income support, child allowance and child tax credit, rent and council tax allowances as well as maintenance from me. All of it tax free i might add. I was absolutely outraged and flabbergasted when i worked out exactly how much she was entitled to plus what she was getting from me on top. No wonder she isnt interested in actually going out to find work! There is a benefits calculator on the direct gov website if you want to check it out for yourself.

    The good news is that the tories are going to take lone parents of kids over the age of 5 off income support and force them to go on JSA. Which means they actively have to seek employment or get their benefits cut. Small comfort i know, but not before time though. So yes, i do sympathise with your plight matey.Been there, done that. Hated every minute of it. Hope any of this will get you a more positive result.

  2. My boyfriend has just had a call from the CSA, about upping payments he cant afford, does anyone know where we can go for advice?..he has been paying for his children for the last 2 yrs, now ex wants more money, he also is thinking of quitting his job…

  3. Haha get a life mick not every woman is on benifits through choice its the MEN who walk out on the kids then like u moan or feel hard done by cause u got to pay up whether they on benifits or not every man know what they need to do keep it in ur pants!

  4. Hi,

    Thanks for your informative reply Mick with regards to my arrears, i’ll be chasing that one up asap!

    Regarding the ‘What will quitting his job gonna do’ then to be honest i’ve been given little option and the deed has been done yesterday! .. Goin to go self-employed so lets see them try a DOE on me now!!

    I’ll pay my maintenance once assessed yet again, but will continue to fight the arrears!

    Also it’s not always the man’s fault, as if running away from paying, but WE always get penalised! .. Also my new partner has 3 teenage sons, got no maintenance despite numerous attempts but WORKED to help herself, rather than wait for ‘free’ monies!!

    Something my ex should try???

  5. the only reason im giving up my job is that i will earn more on benfits while i work i take home less then min wage so cant surrport my self or put a roof over my head so daughters can come and stay with me
    how can peeps say take responsabitly for your children if u have no where to take them or afford to look after them after the csa wanker still so much

  6. leigh know the facts 1st twat before u comment i can easily say women close ur legs but i dont because every situtaion is different the csa only work to there advantage not the pwc not the nrp and not the children

  7. Cheers Martin … Leigh grow up eh?? .. At the time I was married and we both chose to start a family, then for my children’s sake I left an unhappy marriage.

    I DO want to pay, but just NOT the mental amounts that the CSA say I have to!

    Roll on my new self-employed lifestyle and I can’t wait for them to assess me!

  8. Leigh – first of all dont make generalisations about somebodys circumstances when you dont even know him. If you have had a bad experience with your partner, dont just jump to the conclusion that all men dont want to pay, and it’s always the man’s fault.

    I was in a similar situations myself, and before you start jumping down my throat, it was my ex wife I left, and NOT the kids. We simply did not get on at all, and the arguments were so bad that I just knew that the children would be in a far better environment if we weren’t living together.

    Like I say, I had a similar problem, and guess what. It turned out for me that because I had an old fashioned pre CSA agreement where I paid mortgage, insurance and repairs on the house till my youngest was 18, the CSA took no account of this at all and Ihad to pay them as well. I went to court to get the original ruling overturned without sucess. In exactly the same way as the originator of the posting says, I wanted to pay, I wanted and needed to take care of my childrens costs, but instances such as this are just downright stupid.

    The final outcome was that I worked for 10 years paying out £7 per week more than I was earning.

  9. Leigh/Leanne, you must be getting all your entitled to from the CSA then, as you are for them then….lets just hope the men who are paying you dont lose their jobs or chose to give them up, else you wont get nothing!..just more bitter and twisted women!

  10. I have not had bad experience lucky for me I guess but all the men do on here is moan about paying it like a record get a grip u sad fool and pay up p.s I work for the agency and self employed isn’t an easy way out as they enforcing new powers

  11. Leigh,so you say you work for the agency. Well judging by the attitude you show on this site its people like you that create all the pain and suffering handed out by the CSA. Do you enjoy being a small minded nasty piece of work???
    You seem to be completely bitter and twisted mainly about men in general, whats the matter have you been constantly rejected by men who see through your obviously spiteful and vindictive nature!!!!!!

  12. i wouldent waste ur time with leigh ,his got no idea whats going on
    he must work for the csa as his been nasty and dumb fight a toss with a twat like this is like fighting the csa rapists
    karma has a way and it will become there own undoing
    then the tune will change
    the wheels are turning slow but they are turning

  13. Paul
    If you are on the old scheme prior to 2003 the CSA have to allow you your housing costs – (have to show proof of mortgage) – small amount towards council tax, a personal allowance (my son gets £65.00per week!), you then pay 50% of remainder. You are paying far too much. On the present system with one child you would be paying 15% of net pay. Keep on at them its wrong.

  14. @ Leanne Jones. I was married to the mother of my child. My daughter was planned! How was i supposed to start a familly with my then wife if we used protection? Duurrrr! Just for your information. My ex hadnt got a proper job when i met her, never held down a job while i was married to her, and as far as im aware she has never made any attempt to hold down a job since we split from each other. I didnt walk out on my ex wife either. Our split was mutual at the time. So that pisses on your flames doesnt it! I never had aproblem with paying what was due. I actually offered my ex the same as what the csa would have taken from me but she got greedy. They ended up over charging me and i got to end paying for my child a year sooner then i would have been paying for. Mty ex shot herself in the foot out of spite and greed. the money i gave been long spent. I bet my ex now is cursing the day she went to the CSA.

    As for Leigh, she claims to work for the agency, if thats the case, maybe she can answer why it is that so many self employed NRPs seemed to run rings round idiots like her? also why £3.7 billion remains uncollected so far? If the CSA did face to face ( which they are of course to cowardly to do ) women like Leigh with her attitude would end up looking over her shoulder every time she left the building or would spend most of her time in hiding for fear of being recognised by one of the clients she and her colleagues treat so incompetently and being given a slap! Maybe you dont need CSA Leigh, but i think i can safely say what you and some of your so called workmates could do with! You would be shitting yourself if a load of pissed off NRPs surrounded your offices and waited for you to show your face outside. You wouldnt be so cocky then would you!

  15. I cannot understand why you all blame the workers at the csa it is not there fault that u have to pay

  16. No Leigh, im not a dead beat dad. I paid my dues as a hard working tax payer. I stated facts as well as opinions. The only dead beat in this forum is YOU!

  17. after reading most of these comments and writing a dissertation on this area i actually see where the dads are coming from. I have what people have described as a “dead beat” dad who never paid and my mum struglled for years, but at the end of the day i would never say that all men are like that because thats a label that i am not entitled to give. some comments have been quite nasty on here, and as a woman myself i know how vindictive and spiteful they can be, as some of the women who have commented have shown by their comments!

  18. ive just been made redundant having always paid my csa order. and not sure how the csa works.. are they entitled to my redundancy packet.. leigh as u work for csa can u answer that question.. as u can appreciate i have to use this money to live off… also in order to live and continue to support my child, i am thinking of starting my own business… how are the payments calculated if i havent completed a full year books.. and future busness takings are unknown.. thanks

  19. Reading many of the inane – that means unintelligent – comments against this post – I really fear for Britain. There is clearly a real attitude problem amongst many commenters (both men and women). Are British people really so unable to communicate politely and effectively?

    With regard to the commenter Leigh – if you really do work for the CSA – you desperately need a few soft skills courses – no, actually basic skills courses! If you are using your real name (which I doubt), you want to beware of your social media footprint. Publicising a totally negative image of yourself (as you have) isn’t going to do you much good now is it?

    My (relatively) recent embarrassment about being British is rapidly turning to shame!

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