CSA tells me I am £25,000 in arrears but can’t explain why

15 thoughts on “CSA tells me I am £25,000 in arrears but can’t explain why”

1. 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.

2. Hi Andrew I have been down the exact road as you asking CSA for a detailed breakdown then receiving what can only be described a financial summary that didn’t take into account time children spend with me during weeks and half school holidays, I also asked how they came to figures in periods I wasn’t in receipt of any income and no response. We all go about this issue individually and that’s why we are ineffective, what is required is people such as you and I and the many other fathers start a class action lawsuit against the Secretary of State. Via this site anyone have a proposal to meet and discuss? Or if there are any solicitors interested they can get in touch via a response and various parties can register to join up. An election is coming the sooner we act the better!! Carl

3. 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

4. My husband has been down this route. He has 2 children from a previous marriage. When he changed jobs the CSA incorrectly calculated his income. He rang and complained, wrote and complained but nothing happened. The CSA issued a letter stating he had £4500 of arrears! We were under extreme stress and worry throughout all this time. We asked our MP to intercede on our behalf and threatened to go to the press. The CSA finally recalculated the case correctly and apologised and have confirmed he had in fact overpaid! We also requested a SAR (subject Access Request) and got all the information on the case released. Make a formal complaint, involve your MP, make a SAR request and try to communicate via email/ recorded post at all times.

5. 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

6. My daughter is nearly 28.I recently sold the house my daughter and ex partrner lived in.The money was split in half.50K given to ex partner.I informed CSA of my intentions to give half the money.In 2011 I was duly informed by CSA Dudley that I would not need to pay anymore.This was a telephone conversation only.Since receipt of 50K by partner six months ago,I have just received a letter CSF1005 stating I have to pay 22 pounds and a further 10 pounds for each transaction to be paid to BARCLAYS.Smelling a big Conservative Rat and possible collusion between Greedy Government and CEO of Barclays,I am going to contact my MP on Monday and keep this site informed.I figured a payment of fifty thousand pounds would have been sufficient ! If anyone has any similar experiences I would be happy to hear from you to FIGHT THE POWER !

7. 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.

8. I need some advice please.
   My partner has never been ordered to pay maintenance in the old CSA system. His ex wife put in a claim on the new system but as my partner is a house husband and has been for the past 15 years he was awarded nil maintenance. Then a week after the nil maintenance award a letter arrived saying he owed £9968 on the old CSA system. He phoned them and the woman could not explain where they got this figure from. My partner has never ever had any letters requesting maintenance payments and never ever had anything before saying he was in arrears.
   Any advice would be great.
   Thanks

9. 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!

10. The amounts quoted here make my plight seem a little trivial but true to form I received an assessment saying I was 314 quid in arrears.

    This is for a case opened on the 2nd February this year and they calculated an assessment of 13.96 per week. I have spoken to 3 advisors and not one of them knows or can explain why I am in arrears.

    I have gone down the route of writing to them but I haven’t received any response to date.

11. 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!

12. Since there is no money in existence. how can anyone pay?

13. 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.

14. I was nil assessed by the CSA as I was supporting four children. 3 were my partners. My partner was not working.
    My ex had claimed for our son and I had managed to pay until I lost my job. My new job was not as well paid. Hence the nil assessed.
    Despite all the financial pressures I still saw my son every weekend.
    The CSA told my ex to close the case and reopen it under the new rules after 3 months.
    When I received a letter saying the case had been closed I just assumed that as her and her to be third husband were both working and had moved into his outright owned house, that she did not need the trouble as I was nil assessed.
    21 months later I got a call from the CSA at my work saying that a new case had been opened. They said I was now in arrears £2600 and how did I want to pay it?
    I protested that there must be a mistaked asked them to put it in writing.
    No letter came. But they had already written to my work asking for my salary details and telling them not to tell me.
    A direct earnings order was started.

    I appealed and went to a tribunal. I asked to see a copy of the letter that the CSA was required to send me informing me of the new case. The CSA said that if asked they could produce the letter. The judge refused to request it. “You are telling me that I should believe you or Her Majesty’s CSA?”
    I went to the Independent Case Examiner who ignored the fact that the CSA had not opened the case legally.
    My MP spoke to a top CSA person who refused to look into the matter. I lodged a complaint with the CSA and received no reply.
    I went to the Ombudsman but it was over a year so could do nothing.
    So I just paid the DEO
    After several years the CSA called my employer to cancel the DEO as the case was closed as my son had started Uni.
    But a year later I was told they had made an error and I still owed £1100! They tried to start another DEO on my new employer.
    I called Falkirk accounts dept. And they said that I had overpaid and they owed me £540. He said he would stop the DEO.
    Every March from that date I was called saying I still owed £1100.
    4 years later in March 2013 I was told the CSA were going to take me to court for a liability order.
    I did not receive a court letter and found that the CSA had given the court a wrong address!
    I turned up at the magistrates court with proof from the CSA data protection dept. Proving that there had never been any communication between the CSA and myself until I was called to say I owed arrears.
    I agreed to pay the purported arrears in full if the CSA provided the proof that they had legally opened a new case.
    The CSA were ordered to come back with the proof by September 2013.
    The CSA withdrew their case.
    But every March I was still Called to say I owed £1100!
    Talk about harassment!
    Nothing more was done until March 2018.
    My son is 29 working and has his degree.
    I was told my case was now with the CMS. And they said they were going to take £54 a week from me by standing order.
    I told the the above and I wrote to the CSA to remind them about the court.
    I then was sent a text saying The standing order had not been started.
    I had to then write in to be reassessed.

    I told them I am on a State Pension and still paying voluntarily CS for my 19 year old daughter.

    Quite honestly I did the best I could. I even gave my ex the total proceeds from our house sale. I could have taken half. I wish I had now.

    Quite frankly by law it looks like the CSA illegally opened a new case, illegally started a DEO, and illegally took money from my salary?
    What is really working is that the various do called independent ICE, ombudsman and tribunal all failed to make sure the law/ procedure had been followed.

    I am happy my son had support. But the CSA made it look like I was not paying when I was not even aware.

    What next? Another liability order? I wonder what the magistrates would say this time?

15. 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.

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