CSA took money from my wages with no warning
December 30, 2012
My case has been ongoing since 2003 when my ex gave false figures for my earnings. My true earnings were never looked at and i appealed full strength but was pushed from pillar to post. I was self employed and suffering from depression, my work was erratic and so were my payments BUT i always paid when i was working.
After a few years of being ignored by the CSA and noone dealing with it a mutual agreement was made between my ex and i that the money she owed me form the house would serve as the rest of child maintenance. In february this year £350.00 a month was started being taken from my wages with no prior warning. My ex is refusing to take the house money off and the CSA are saying its too late to appeal the amounts.
I never stopped appealing but hit a brick wall with it. It has been knocked back for appeal and has gone to a tribunal, i have sent in proof of every year of income and on my basic calculations she owes me if the house money is taken into account. I am building debt each month due to the 350 being taken, noone cares, noone wants to listen yet she lied in the beginning about my income and they werent interested in the truth.
What do i do from here ?? i had my children every other weekend and 2 evenings during the week as a minimum, often the children came to me and my partner on my ex’s weekend as she would go out and on holidays and leave the kids with me.
Please help me.
Did you supply your earnings at the start when the csa asked for them? If not they will have based their calculation on information gathered from other sources. When a Maintenance calculation is processed both NRP and PWC are issued with letters advising of the calculation and what it is based on, both parties have 28 days in which to appeal. If you did not appeal the calculation the figures will stand.
The maintenance calculation will be based on your income with allowances for any children living in your household and a shared care allowance if your children stay overnight with you 52 nights or more in a year – shared care needs to be agreed by both NRP and PWC, if there is a dispute then the csa will ask both parties to submit their best available evidence – this can be diary entries, calenders or list of dates the children stayed over, if you are able to provide further evidence of the nights you have the children this will go in your favour.
The CSA will only adjust the debt in accordance with the house money if the PWC agrees that this is paid in lieu of child maintenance, alternatively if you are paying towards the mortgage for the house the pwc and children are living in you can apply for a variation. If you submit a variation application you will need to supply proof that you are paying towards the mortgage.
“Alice on December 30th, 2012 4:06 pm
Did you supply your earnings at the start when the csa asked for them? If not they will have based their calculation on information gathered from other sources. ”
Interesting comment from ‘alice’ who works for the csa and should therefore have a better idea of the rules than me and you (kevin). You say your case has been ongoing since 2003, ‘alice’ claims that the csa “will have based their calculation on information gathered from other sources.”
You may want to note that since 2004 following the rule in Kerr [2004] the csa are obliged to act on information received from ‘other sources’ in that they have to act on info gathered from government departments. I mention this because yo say you were self employed and work was erratic so if there was an occasion when you claimed benefit the csa could have been informed by the jobcentre.
You need a copy of your Data Protection Prints (£10) from the csa which will verify what info they had on you at the time.
The commentator ‘alice’ may be able to tell you more on the csa obligations at the time of your case.
Quote kevin, My case has been ongoing since 2003…
When in 2003 did your case commence, before, on or after 03 March?
If your case is calculated under old rules could be subject of a penalty assessment, which could be converted to a proper assessment?
chall
equally if your case is New Rules (after march 2003) if your earnings were not supplied by yourself your case may be subject to a DMD (Default Maintenance Decision) – this will be £30 for 1 child, £40 for 2 or £50 for 3 or more children. Again if you are able to supply details of earnings for the appropriate period the DMD can be converted.