CSA wants more money than we have
Was wondering if anyone had any advise to help us please.
Tuesday evening my husband got a phone call from the csa saying they were starting to take monies this week under a doe from his wages for 40%. We have had contact from the csa for nearly three years – when they sent us a cheque for overpayment and the case was closed when his daughter finished education.
You can imagine our surprise, my husband rang back after the initial shock and got someone who was prepared to listen but said nothing could be done this was owed from 1993 – 1994 when his first marriage broke down and he was declared bankrupt. We have always paid everything they have asked for and never once been told that we had arrears on the account of nearly 5 thousand pounds. We have both been out of work recently and both have part time jobs so 40% deduction leaves us unable to pay mortgage etc. They refused a lower percentage and we are at our wits end.
Does anyone have a similiar problem or know of any way we can get it amount Many thanks
4 thoughts on “CSA wants more money than we have”
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Yes we are in the same situation, my advice make a formal complaint to the csa demanding to know where these arrears have come from and the time its taken to give them to you, then see your mp asap, take all paperwork with you….in my husband’s case he didn’t know csa were involved as they failed to send letters out, wanted 10,000 in an 18 month period when he was unemployed, its taken over a year with mp’s involvement to get it re-assessed correctly and mp has noticed the time delay and has monitored it….through the mp, csa have managed to lose his paperwork twice!!!
Karen,
I agree with Jay.
You should clearly mark your correspondence as a ‘complaint’. Ask for the cause of the arrears and request a complete account breakdown.
If you genuinely can not afford the amount the agency have set the DEO at, also enclose a budget sheet showing household incomings/outgoings. At this stage suggest a reasonable amount that you can afford.
Keep copies of all correspondence you send, post signed for and copy in your local MP.
Did your OH supply the info the agency needed to make a proper assessment at that time OR could it be a penalty assessment was applied? – if the latter, it may be possible to get it converted, if the relevant info can be produced now. Which could in turn lower the figure, you should be aware it could also increase such.
chall ~ afairercsaforall
chall,
In our case even the csa cannot access records from 15 years ago and have told us that gaining proof would be near on impossible as agencies such as dwp etc only hold records for so long….the case above goes back even further than ours, and this is where this couple need to start their complaint, if you cannot prove that we owe it hoe can we???
Thanks for the replies will see our MP and see if we can get any help.
Hope you get yours sorted as well
K