I am not the father but CSA continues to take my money

February 5, 2012

Please see below this is the email I just sent to the Child Support Agency:

I am writing to register a formal complaint against the behaviour / actions of the CSA. In Dec 2010, I noticed my wage was short of £300+, I checked my wage slip & saw that there was an adjustment on it. Phoned the company’s HR department and that is when I first found out that the CSA was involved. There had been no prior warning by letter before this initial contact. I then contacted the CSA who then informed me that I had been named as the father of a child who was now 8 years old.

As you can imagine this was a bolt out of the blue which was a great shock as! Was 100% certain that I had not fathered her child as I had not slept with the mother? Despite my insistence on not being involved, I found that I was spoken to with great disrespect and actually was made to feel like a criminal. At no time was there any help or advice given to me as to how I could resolve the situation or prevent the payments from being taken from my salary. I was presumed guilty without even having being asked any questions. On several occasions I contacted The CSA only to be met with the same obstructive unhelpful attitude that I was committing some great sin by denying my involvement Throughout this whole mess, The CSA have failed on all aspects of their DWP customer charter.

1. Right treatment – obviously this is a mis administration which needs immediate correction and the poor treatment I have received by CSA representatives

2. Right result – as the DNA result proves

3. On time – Too long has been taken to look into the situation as no-one has actually taken time to hear my side of the story

4. Easy access – on all occasions I have had difficulty getting answers from the CSA. On numerous occasions I was told the case worker on my case was on holiday that day and nobody else could deal with it.

I am now happily married and am fortunate to have an understanding and supportive wife who is expecting our first child in June. This kind of stress and untrue allegation could ruin a lesser stable relationship and i am very angry at the unnecessary distress that this situation is causing my wife. We should be enjoying her pregnancy however we have this financial worry looming over us. I lost my job due to redundancy in October and am under a lot of stress already without this situation which is of no making of mine As you can imagine, I was keen to prove that this had been a case of mistaken identity and agreed to have a DNA test. As I fully expected it to, the DNA test proved that I was not the father.

Now, after 9 months, I have been contacted again telling me that another investigation has to take place, during which time I am expected to make payments again as the mother has disputed my identity by saying that the photo she was shown of Justin Wilson was not me. How can this be disputed, surely the CSA appointed GP will have had to take copies of my identification at the time of taking the test. Are you now questioning the integrity of the GP? I am sure that they will be very offended if this was the case Does the fact that the mother does not recognise me from the photo AND DNA proof not convince the CSA that I am not the father? What else can I do to prove this and get back payments that, in my opinion, were illegally taken from me In summary

1. I have made all payments and fully co-operated in all CSA requests however unreasonable they have been

2. My wife and I have suffered great stress and financial hardship owing to this situation

3. I underwent a DNA test at a GP approved by the CSA which has proven that I am not the father

4. I feel that this situation warrants an immediate review

Should I have not received a response from yourselves within a reasonable timeframe, I will take further action to resolve this by contacting the Independent Case Examiner for further assistance

Comments

  • chall says:

    Hi Justin,

    If you haven’t already involve your local MP and ask for their assistance.

    Did you inform the agency that you were made redundant in Oct and have they reduced the amount they expect you to continue paying?

    Quote Justin; “Now, after 9 months, I have been contacted again telling me that another investigation has to take place..”

    ~ Do you have any other cases with the CSA?

    You should bear in mind that any interest payment on money you may be refunded is not atomically included. You may also wish to apply for compensation. he link will take you to the Guide for redress.
    http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/financial-redress-for-maladministration.pdf

    chall ~ afairercsaforall

  • bob says:

    Justin please contact a solicitor you can get thousands from them. There is a clause which applies to the cmec which is; the agency has a duty to ensure that any unfounded case where a cost has been applied is to see that person re-imbursed to that persons prior financial status before agency involvement.

    Sue the twats

  • justin says:

    Hi Chall,

    I had arranged a meeting with my local MP bur cancelled this when the ICE advised me that thay was going to stop payments from my JSA.

    No i never informed them about being made redundant asi thought my case was closed, how wrong was i…..

    I have no other children so the answer to your question is no.

    kind regards

    justin

  • justin says:

    Hi Bob,

    Believe me i would if only a solicitor would take it on the csa have their own laws trust me i have rang loads of solicitors no one will touch them unless of course you know somebody willing and able.

    UPDATE, on Friday i recd a letter stating that i now must attend an interview under caution what and why these people are really testing me now i really do not know what more 1 can do as stated i am not the father this is hell on a large scale

  • jay. says:

    I agree with chall, see an mp ASAP, I have a friend in a similar situation and they have solicitors involved, and csa even ignore their requests. I just don’t understand the incompetence of this agency and the stress that they cause, why isn’t a pwc accountable when they make false claims, surely its fraud?

  • bob says:

    Justin head over to http://WWW.dadtalk.co.uk and post in legal eagle forums

  • chall says:

    Hi justin,

    If the agency are in receipt of a negative DNA test result, have establish with the parent with care that they have incorrectly identified you as a non-resident parent and you have no other cases open with the case that may have arrears owing, the agency should closed your case and you should be refunded.

    The effective date for a case to commence is when the agency first make contact with a non resident parent either by telephone or by writing to a confident address, which would have given you the option to deny parentage at that time. (Normally, a disputed parentage outcome is effective from the date the dispute first arose and a refund if applicable is from that date)
    If you received no contact from the agency prior to the DEO being actioned, you were denied the opportunity, prior to a maintenance amount being calculated.
    Under such circumstance I expect you should be fully refunded, also ask for interest to be added and compensation.

    Please re contact you local MP asap, as they will speed things up.
    ICE do not normally become involved until a complainant has received final resolution from the agency. However, it may be help to contact them and ask their opinion under the circumstances.

    You may find this link interesting http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/improving-public-service/reports-and-consultations/reports/parliamentary/small-mistakes,-big-consequences/5

    If you need any help obtaining any child support Legislation, I will be happy to assist.

    chall ~ afairercsaforall

  • justin says:

    Thank you for your advise i will make an appointment with the MP again hopefully can get in on friday afternoon after going to see the CSA under caution still confused by this i have registered on dadtalk hopefully get some more advise.

    once again thank you for your help i will keep you updated

  • jay. says:

    Good luck Justin, don’t let them side-track you. Your poor wife must be in bits. Our mp was very good.

  • Lyndsay says:

    bloody hell, this is the same thing happening to my husband at the moment. He had a letter from CSA back in 2003 stating some woman (who he had NEVER slept with or had a relationship with) claimed he was the father of her son. He disputed parentage and asked for DNA test. He received a letter from the CSA in 2004 saying the case was going no further.
    then at the beginning of this month he had 370.99 taken direct from his wages leaving our family struggling to pay rent and feed OUR actual children.
    the CSA have denied all knowledge of sending the letter, so we’ve had to send copies to prove what they said.
    It was assigned to a caseworker last week and has now been escalated to a specialist case worker who ‘apparently’ will be working on his behalf.
    We will be contacting our MP in the next few days to get a bit of weight behind this farce.
    I really feel for you and your wife, my husband’s case started before we met so I will support him all the way.
    Make sure you and your wife keep communicating and supporting one another, it’s a very stressful time and you need each other.

  • justin says:

    Hi Lyndsay,

    I never actually updated the latest on this but as you know stressful times dealing with them anyway i attended the interview under caution as i have got nothing to hide. The outcome another DNA test they do make you laugh and the story they had to say i was the father was even more laughable the girl in question really should write a book it was that good, So i will do another DNA test at their expense don’t see why i should foot the bill but all in all its just adding up my costs which i will claim back against them including my time, travel, photographs oh and phone calls i do hope you manage to sort your case out i have been to hell and back and pushed from pillow to post just shows that not many people at this department are really putting the child first.

  • Matt says:

    @ bob – can you give some further input re “There is a clause which applies to the cmec which is; the agency has a duty to ensure that any unfounded case where a cost has been applied is to see that person re-imbursed to that persons prior financial status before agency involvement. ”

    I had a negative DNA test come back and they refuse to pay back the £36,000 they have taken from me. They have refunded back to a point 2 years ago when I requested a test after certain rumours came to light re me being the Dad.

    I spent 8 months saving for a private test with Cellmark as the old scheme payments were crippling me. Eventually it gets done and I’m not the Dad.

    I get back 10% of the money they have taken because “I didn’t dispute paternity earlier” – my arguement that she misled me etc and that she has obtained money by deception falls on deaf ears.

    Come to a brick wall with the CSA and now off to the ICE. Currently represented by Forshaws (Stephen Lawson) and have spent £1,000 of the £3,000 that was refunded battling for the balance.

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