I have made an official complaint against the Child Support Agency

I am the partner of what I believe is termed an NRP? (I feel like that’s some kind of slur against my partner (Paul), who is a devoted father with shared parenting) In just 9/10 months of dealing with the CSA we are now at the point that an official complaint has been raised.

Dumb question; does anyone find it funny that the CSA are allowed to investigate themselves?

Here’s our story;

To start with I was angry and tried to stay out of dealings with the agency, Paul had always paid his ex more then the 15% a week shared care payment in a private arrangement, but when he was made redundant it dropped to £5 per week, his ex was lead to believe on approaching the CSA that they could facilitate the higher payments starting again, yes, she believed the CSA could get £30 per week from a guy on JSA!!

When the CSA finally “caught up” with Paul (he had at this point found employment and had told them where he was working, (mistakenly by phone)), he volunteered Deduction of Earnings, and even forgave them leaving him with £120 out of £475 one week in the name of back pay, we have since learnt this goes against their own guidelines which I believe stand at 40% (please correct if I’m wrong) Soon after that, what had seemed like a God send to start with, between two people that neither liked nor trusted each other any more, was becaming a nightmare.

A short time after the CSA had started to claim money from us, Paul was told that the temporary contract with his employer was not going to be renewed, he had 30 days notice, the same day he informed the CSA, by phone (it was some time before we learnt the errors of our ways), that in 30 days unless he managed to get a new job, he would be on JSA again, the person he spoke to was extremely helpful, he told Paul not to worry, that he would leave a note on the system and Paul was to call them when his contract finished to progress the information further, diligently on finishing with his employer Paul again rang the CSA, confirmed that he had finished with his current employer and had that day put on a claim for JSA, again they were very helpful, they would evaluate his case and see if any deductions needed to be made from the JSA, you can imagine our surprise when 2 weeks later Paul received a call from the CSA aggressively chasing his payments!!

For the next 30 minutes Paul had to speak to the most vilest person I have ever heard, who interrogated him as to how he had been supporting himself, they called him a liar for saying he was on JSA due to the fact he was yet to receive his first payment (this was only 2 weeks after being made unemployed mind you), they called him a liar for saying he had called them already reported the change of circumstances, stating there was no such evidence on the system, just from listening in at my end I could imagine Paul being talked to more civilly if he had been guilty of murder he suggested they contact his ex employer for confirmation and they refused they said they needed proof in writing that Paul no longer worked there, in the end Paul lost his patience, the person he spoke to was obstructive and rude at best, he reiterated his ex employers details and put the phone down, Over the next two weeks there we’re several calls like this and to the best of my knowledge they never contacted his old employers, the calls stopped once his claim went through for JSA, to date we are still waiting for an apology.

Why Won’t you believe us??

Paul was shocked when the CSA wrote to him to inform him that £5 a week would be taken from his JSA and rang the CSA to find out what was going on, Paul has shared care and has the littlen over 150 nights per year, now don’t get me wrong, his daughter is rarely at home anyway as she virtually lives with her Nans, in that respect we were lucky as his ex was never likely to withdraw access whoever she had informed the CSA that Paul had no access with her what-so-ever, for all that time they had be taking 20% rather then the 15% we had been lead to believe we should pay.

Paul immediately put the record straight, but they wouldn’t have it, his ex had to drop the claim that he had no access, they wouldn’t even investigate, in essence the were aiding and abetting fraud, I’m not on great wages and Paul was soon in tear on the phone explaining to the advisor that the deduction of £10 per fortnight was likely to mean that he would be able to go over to collect his daughter any more, after this I took over and my hate/hate relationship with the CSA began. The first thing I did was has this was our weekend was offer to put his daughter on the phone, she wouldn’t let me, I asked her for advise and this is what I was told.

1. We could get a visitation order, but these cost on average £2000 in costs etc, and she then informed me that they don’t accept them solely anyway, if his ex still calmed that we had no contact

2. I could keep a diary of days that we had her, but they would only accept that if his ex signed for each hand over…….. this is a woman who’s already lied to get £5 per week??

3. get the mother to contact them to revoke the claim.

She coldly informed us that they will not take the NRP’s word in anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please wtf in the end it was simpler then I thought I got Paul to threaten not to have her at the weekends any more …. yeah she’s real mother of the year stuff.

When she finally contacted them to withdrew the no access claim, they never gave returned the over payment, no action was taken against her even though she had defrauded the government and again we are still awaiting an apology, do you think if I held my breath waiting for these apologies they could sue the CSA with corporate manslaughter?

The Saga of The 5 Payslips

Eventually Paul found work on another temporary contract, he rang and reported his change of circumstances, they asked him for 5 payslips, Just over a month later we went down to the local post office, and sent off the 5 slips recorded delivery this time (CSA education turning point), 2 weeks later we received the payslips back with a comp slip job done…. right?

4 months passed there was still no deductions, but we had been told that there was a massive delay in the claims going through, that a lot were having to be sorted by hand after all his ex hadn’t been on our case so it had to be ok. 5 Months and the contract ended, Paul was back on JSA, last week out of the blue he gets a text, “when am I getting my money” at this point I suggested why don’t we try to make a private agreement with her again now you working at least we can get some money to them, Paul rang her that night and for the first time they had what I considered an amicable conversation, they were going to meet up when her took the littlen back on Sunday to sort things out, finally the CSA would be out of the picture….. not so fast, the CSA and scum ex, she called the national help line on the Thursday to make sure she was doing the best thing, she was told by L**** A******* (I don’t like to name and shame but you have the initials if you end up talking to this women she clearly doesn’t know what she’s doing and is a liability) that Paul had never sent his payslips in, that’s why she had received no money, Right take one already tense relationship and add some “he said/ she said” and you get a Subway showdown.

She turned on the Friday with new man in tow and in a crowded restaurant, in front of a 5yr old continued to laid what can only be considered a verbal assault on my partner, this was also the first breach on the data protection act, part 2 section 10 to be precise, the kid was so upset Paul wanted to send her back home with her mum but she wouldn’t take her and screamed louder about Paul shirking his responsibilities, we all recovered and had a good weekend for those who are interested, Paul got in touch with the CSA, it transpired once you forced you way through the layers on bullshit to someone who was authorised to tell the truth, that they had received the payslips but due to a clerical error they had classed Paul as not liable to pay any maintenance, to add insult to injury, they had now lost all the copies of said pay slips, he was then asked by the advisor to give a figure of how much he though he owed them!!!!

When he declined they asked for the full 5 months of weekly payslips and again Paul declined and advised them to speak to his previous employer, they had no record of their details on file, in the end I took over again and gave them the address advising I was not willing to do their job for them. They also have me and Paul as having a resident child her, we have never claimed to have a child, and they have only ever given us the 5% discount for the shared parenting (breach two of the data protection, it is their responsibility to keep all data held correct) we officially give up, all this has occurred between now and October last year, and this is only a brief outline!! we have never had dealings with them where the CSA does not make a mistake, you never get the same information twice, they don’t note phone conversations they even lose recorded post letters, how on earth can you deal with these people!! their staff are poorly trained and abusive (although I do allow a certain level of understanding I should imagine they get a fair amount of abuse) the system is so flawed I don’t believe it is possible to right, today an 8 page official complaint went into them for ourselves, but in my heart of hearts I believe that the will fob it off, I just wanted to tell our story, and to be honest I dint think this is over, can anyone advise us where to go from here