Ex says CSA told him to put money into account for my children

January 19, 2013

I have two children, 2 girls, 11 and 12. I was going through csa but i got no where, i even wrote a letter to the MP, but all i got was a few letters saying that they will sort it out. I never acctually received any money through the csa, just aload of letters about, the amount of money i should be receiving, but never got.

I have been told by my ex that the csa, has told him to put the money into an account, but that is not helping me at this procise moment, as the girls are getting bigger and things are more exspencive.

I have had to cancel my thing with the csa, as my ex told me that i had to. I dont get anything from my ex for the girls, and the csa never ever helped me, i dont know where else to turn, please help.

Comments

  • Smithy says:

    From the sound of it you’ve looked into this a lot already and with the limited information you’ve provided what I say may or may not be helpful.

    Possibly what he means when he say’s that he is keeping in a separate bank account is that he will have to pay arrears at some point in the future so he is keeping it for them but my instinct say’s this is some bluff to placate you.

    Normally issues come up because the NRP doesn’t agree with the amount the CSA have calculated as in they run their own business or the CSA have made some mistake. I realise you’ve already done this but you really shouldn’t have closed the claim down completly as you don’t know what new information may come to light in future and these things can all be back dated.

    If your ex is in dispute and is being successful in that dispute but is at least on the face of it open to paying an amount you could reopen the case, ask to go onto “maintenance direct” and then the case is still open but for the period of time when you are on “maintenance direct” there are no arrears built up for the NRP. The NRP can make payment directly to you of an amount you both agree. This is I think his only viable argument against paying you some money directly now quashed. If you want to switch back from this to a CSA calculated figure you can do at a later date by just calling them if he fails to pay but always keep the case open.

    If you search for my other postings you will see i’ve posted a template of both documents you and the NRP would need to sign and send to the CSA.

  • Alice says:

    CSA would not tell an NRP to put money into an account for the children – as Smithy says they may have advised him at the start of the case to put money aside (possibly into a separate account if he has one) so that when they were able to do the calculation (can take 12 weeks to gather the wages info etc they need for this) he would have the money to pay the arrears.

    The NRP is not in a position to tell you to close the case – you are the owner of the case and as such only you can close the case, the CSA could only close the case if they children did not fit the criteria – ie they were not in full time education or they had reached the age of 20.

    You can re-open your case and payments can either be made direct to yourself (Maintenance Direct as Smithy has stated) or the agency can collect the money for you. If you choose Maintenance Direct any missed payments during that time the agency cannot collect. If the case is set for the agency to collect the payments and the NRP does not pay they can take enforcement action to get the money owed in arrears as well as your regular maintenance.

    Any arrears on the original case can still be collected unless the case was set to MD at the start. If the case was set for the agency to collect the payments and the NRP does not pay the arrears the CSA can take enforcement action to collect these arrears for you.

    If at any point you have questions about your case you should speak to the agency as they will be able to advise you on it

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