Bill says:

Write to them, recorded delivery, asking for a full account breakdown from the start of your case to present day.
Also ask for a copy of your file from the data protection unit and within you should find all their calculations and copies of letters sent to you. This should give you some idea of why they think the arrears have accrued.

Wookie says:

Hi,
I’ve just had a letter arrive saying that I owe 40000
I am right at the start of this nightmare so any advice I can get as what to do would be very helpful
If any body wants to meet as a forum to start legal action I’m based in Birmingham so get in touch

Nick Neville says:

I am currently going through this now and in fact was informed that I owe £3500 in arrears. I was unable to pay the £200 plus amount extra per month to cover these arrears and it went to court with them stating that I do not need to go?? as all they are doing is getting it laid down by law that I owe this amount. This happened then came another court date concerning arrears. Again I was informed that I do not need to attend it is just a formality. In all this time I was paying £77 a month off my arrears of £3500. On the third court letter arriving I got worried I again phoned them and they said not to worry?? as I was on the phone I was opening other letters. Whilst on the phone the CSA actually stated that this was the first court hearing and in fact it was the third?? and that nothing will happen?? now back to opening letters whilst on phone. The next letter was baliffs coming to take my poccesions totalling £3500 the next letter was a lean on my house for £3500 now totalling £7000 the lady at the CSA called me a liar as I was shocked on opening these letters and that this was the first court appearance and could not possibly be true?? I went back over all the old letters after this phone call and they had plotted to get a lean on my house with the next step of making me sell to pay off the arrears My wife and I were devastated. I got my local MP involved and he explained I must go to court for the third hearing and put my case forward. I did and bearing in mind that I had been paying £77 a month off my arrears for over 8 months the amount had increased even further.
The judge through the case out and I won yip heeeee. I am now trying to get my records for all of my payments and also my arrears, again no joy after 3 weeks of trying looks like the MP route again.
I do not swear but they are bast**ds and I mean fuck**g bast**ds.
I would join/ help any group to get a fair deal for Dads. We make them we pay for them but lets be fair for both parties. I actually pay more out to my child from my first wife of over 12 years ago then my 3 year old son gets now and oh yiphee when my second child is born with my second wife I get a 1.5% reduction in payments which means to all purposes my third child is only worth 1.5% of my income but my first is entitled to 19%. I am also a very low wage earner and I sometimes earn less than £450 a month yes really I do (zero hours contract) because they have to leave me with £476 by law to live on (a joke with a family) if I cannot pay it gets rolled over until I earn enough to pay?? isn’t it supposed to be 20% of my income ??? but If I earn less than £476 a month I still have to pay £140 a month when I can pay so if I earn £1000 in a month but have not paid for 2 months because I have not earned enough they take £420 ???? I cannot win anyway that’s enough from me I could go on and on and on

Nick

Leslie says:

I am with child maintenance services and always paid. I was told that I had 7 pounds worth of arrears so paid never missing a payment. A year later I was then told it was an error and there us 1800 arrears. I said I can pay 250 max however they have said 300 and that is it. If I didn’t agree there and then they would charge me 20 per cent. What can I do I can’t afford this amount at all.

Lewis says:

I have one child with my ex wife. He is 13 now. I have never been an absent father. Although she separated from me when the boy was 1, we still lived in the same house, with me paying the majority of the rent, helping with bills, and off course taking care of our son everyday. This went on for about 5 years. Eventually I got my own adress and still carried on taking care of my son everyday. Within a few months of me taking on this new adress, my ex wife (I eventually divorced her in between) lost her flat and so the boy came to live at my own place permanently.
Bottom line is I have never paid anything to the CSA (although she opened a claim without even realizing what she was doing-she only wanted to be the parent receiving the child benefit). Why would I? I am not an absent father, I have always lived with my son, and have always taken most of the costs.
I explained this back in 2015 when I had the only one on one with a case worker regarding this matter. An exchange that was conveniently erased from the system.
Now obvoliously, after 12 years of saying nothing, the agency just asked me to pay 18k in back payments.
I explained the whole story again but to no avail.
I got the ex wife to sign a declaration stating she doesn’t want to receive the back payments. No avail.
That want to pay this so they can get a nice commission for themselves.
And I will see them in court!

LN says:

My partner has just received a bailiff’s notice via his parents’ house for over £7k in arrears, but the name of the ‘client’ on the notice is illegible, and has ‘(CSA)’ after it. Long story short, he has a child from 1991 and there could be some missed payments from when she was 13 yo onwards. Fast forward to now, before me, my partner was in a very abusive relationship with a woman who was straight out of benefit’s street, who had 3 young children by 3 different men. When he left her with 0 contact since the day he left the house, she has sent a lot of abuse to him and to me, so I would not put it past her to now be trying to claim CSA from him for one of her kids, because it’s just another way to get to him.
We don’t earn much between us even though we both have 2 jobs, so this amount of money has understandably terrified us, especially given that it turned up 3 days after we booked our wedding. Aren’t the CSA obliged to give notice about arrears long before handing it over to a DCA/bailiff?? And where do we stand if those notices have not been received? Even if it is to do with payments for his child from 1991, we think his psycho ex may have been receiving the notices and deliberately not done anything about them, and only gave out his parents’ address when bailiffs started appearing!

Mark Hughes says:

3 Children, 2 always lived with me. 1 of them between parents at varying times.
First time I heard of CSA involvement with 3rd child they sent a assessment which included 1 of the children that was with me for 3 years. I wrote back to them asking for their calculation but heard nothing for 7 years. They have recently changed to CMS and calculated I owe £52 per week since 2007 which was calculated using 2 children when it should have been one child. They also based the £52 on a cashflow forecast I sent in. 8 years or so later they want £22k. I put in a SAR and find no correspondence between 2007 when I asked them for the calc until 2015 telling me the case was closing because CSA is changing. How can I convince the Magistrates that I was never given the opportunity to communicate with them. I got the MP involved who basically was fobbed off. There is nothing the MP can do because the CMS are opperating with the LAW which seems rigged against anyone self-employed. I am defending a Liability Order being granted to the CMS.
I just spent the last week preparing evidence in paper format and they weren’t interested in what I had to say other than I was not aware of the debt. They never come back to me after November 2007 until the last few years.

Ben Mead says:

Someone please help me! I have ex trying to screw me over with the CSA… I have spent years fighting this and every time it ends in the same result.

I met my ex in 2001, she fell pregnant after me met (So I though)! We where only together 6 months… and the children was born a month after we split up!!! So I’m not doctor but the laws of physics set this isn’t right!!! 7 Month pregnancy and the baby was later in coming too…

At the time I was serving in the British Army and couple of years later I was medically discharged due to suffering from mental health issues after going to Iraq! I have all the medically reports etc… The Government have diclared me unfit for work and before this worked in a couple of jobs but each time had to leave to my health. I receive little in benefits and have to live with my parents due to my health.

But the CSA still think I’m serving in the British Army after being medically discharged 15 years ago… I hve all the evidence to proof this but each time it fells on deaf ears at the CSA. To make matters worst recently I discovered my name isn’t even on the Birth certificate of the child too… Taken them 15 years to tell me this too!!! Each I fight this battle my health gets worst and only 3 months ago I ended up in hospital as it had a huge impact on my mental health…

Please does anyone have any advice as I feel CSA are bullying me and won’t listen to anything I say or mention to them.