A Small Stick to Beat Them With

November 18, 2008

Every one has heard or read stories of the incompetence of the CSA and its staff and at the end of these stories nothing ever changes, no matter how many times you complain at them. of course this is because complaints are handled internally allowing the CSA to protect itself. usually by responding with their own twisted interpretation of the law. BUT they are required to comply with laws other than child support law including The Data Protection Act which is Monitored by the Data Protection Registrar NOT the CSA so if they break this law there is someone else you can report them to in order to keep them in check. I hope my experience below is of help to all and if there are enough complaints of this  nature sooner rather than later something will be done.

During a long and very bitter battle with them i regularly had reason to complain about the amount of personal information they where passing to my ex-wife, in the end i applied for a data protection printout and a copy off all clerical records on my case “Complete and unedited”. obviously anything they dont want you to see they will blank out and tell you if it refers to another person so you are not allowed to see it, you have no way of telling if this is true but they do miss stuff. I went trough the sheets thoroughly and found entries containing telephone calls with her, her NI number, her telephone number & address and an entry where i had called in and been able to quote from a call they missed (an admission) plus details of mine that were incorrect. I made a formal complaint in the usual way and as usual was fobbed of so i went straight to th Data protection registrar. Ok the net result was that she got compensated which was a bit of an own goal but they also got their wrist slapped and have “improved procedures to ensure this error can not occur in the future”.  several year on they have no done the same again! i now have her back account number.

Clearly they can not be trusted with any sensitive or personal information. by all means if they do this to you complain at them but you will be given a pack of lies. I suggest you just go straight to the Data Protection Registrar and get him to come down on these people like a ton of Bricks

PETITION FOR A FAIRER CSA FOR ALL

November 12, 2008

At afairercsaforall we have been very busy over the last couple of months.

Due to user demand, last month we set up a sister site for the forum. The new site afairercsaforall.co.uk although in its infancy, is packed with information, with more due to be added. If you have an experience with the CSA that you are happy to share with others, please add it to the site. You can also access the forum by clicking the forum link.

afairercsaforall have now started a PETITION for ‘A FAIRER CSA FOR ALL’. The petition covers ~

# The CSA having no legal duty of care.

# Tax Credits & Disability elements.

# Non residents parents accrual of arrears courtesy of the CSA.

# Assessing Income.

# Shared Care.

# Complaints to the CSA.

~ the full petition can be found at afairercsaforall.co.uk, please come show your support.

afairercsaforall are proud to support the ‘End child poverty campaign’

Dead Beat Dads get a meeting with Kitty Ussher

November 11, 2008

An update on what we have been doing lately. We we have managed to get a meeting arranged with Kitty Ussher so hopefully we can get the ball rolling and get our point across. We found out that Kitty had replaced James Plaskitt so after doing some research about the new Under Secretary of the DWP we found out that she wasn’t very far from us and was an MP for that area. We sent numerous emails and letters to her requesting a meeting with her but got no reply, as well as that we sent letters to Lord Mackenzie of Luton and Stephen Geraghty but we received no replies to date.

We found out that Kitty had open surgeries so we went along armed with our folders and a letter just in case she would not see us due to not being from her constituency at least we would have given her our letter personally requesting a meeting with us.

After speaking to her secretary and informing her why we wanted to see Kitty  she told us that because we wanted to see her for a ministerial purpose I would have to make an appointment through her ministerial office which will be arranged through the DWP. We informed her secretary that we have sent numerous emails and letters to her ministerial address but they no doubt will have been ignored, deleted or shredded.

Her secretary informed us that Kitty would have to see her constituents first and if she had time she would see us after, given the fact she was supposed to be at the meeting from 4 till 5, and she turns up at half four then she has to see about 7 people we figured we would not get to speak to her. At 5PM we heard her saying to her secretary that she really wants to speak to us and so we were called over. After she apologised for keeping us waiting and realised we had come about 40 miles to see her she informed us that she knows about us, has read our web site and she totally agrees with our site. She informed us that she had to pick up her children but she needed to see us and asked us if we would mind going to London to see her because she wants to have alook at all the evidence we have and wants to make a difference to this draconain Agency.

We will keep you informed folks

Dead Beat Dads Association

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