I went to the CSA to help me

March 17, 2012

I must be the only man foolish enough to have gone to the CSA for assistance in calculating my maintenance payments.

However, they have well and truely messed me about to the point where theve failed to make contact cost or contact variations so im paying full wack.

ive also had a number of bouts of mental and physical health problems since theve been involved but this falls on deaf ears.

i love my son and maintain as much contact with him as i can following his mum walking out on me with him and leaving me a mountain of debts to tackel – and im still trying to clear it 6 yeard latter. but shes gone from being whole dependant on me financially to now borrowing a £20,ooo franchise and every time its not doing well im being pursued for more and more money.

hence the application to the CSA.

can anyone help me work my threw this – im a senior university lecturer and have advised govenment on fire safety policy but cant for the life of me fathom how the CSA figures are arrived at nor how difficult it seems to be to get the variation.

I live in london and my son lives in glasgow and its cost me £190 per month in travel costs and i had him 57 days over the past 12 month – given that i didnt see him for the three months i was desparately unwell this is a lot of contact time.

infact i has my son for 27 days during june and july and met all travel and living costs but nothing has been deducted from the variation.

i work on complex life or death calculations for fire safety issues from hospitals or large public buildings, am a established international researcher but cant for the life of me fathom how the CSA or underpinning legislation arrives at the figures they do.

all i want to do is see my son and pay a reasonable ammount of maintenance.

please help as im at my witts end, facing eviction, have a mountain of debt, returned to work against my GPs advice and really dont know where to turn.

Comments

  • Carol says:

    Often when you phone the Call Centres you can get told different advice every time.

    The CSA should be taking into account how often you have your son. They should also be allowing your travel costs to collect him.

    Go on the CSA calculator site. This will tell you from your income and nights you have your son, but will not tell you about expenses to collect him. Normally you should pay 15% of your net salary but it may be slightly less because you have your child overnight. It will give a rough indication.

    Do you have an allocated caseworker? If not then write in to the CSA. It is much better dealing with them in writing and that way they cannot backtrack on anything they say.

    You mentioned that your ex ran out on you with debts. Were the debts in joint names? If they were then I am sure you can also ask the CSA for a variation to take this into account.

    I do sympathise with your situation but at the end of the day the CSA are not concerned at all about your debt situation, if you lose your house etc. They may even try and guarantee any debt by putting an order over your house so you cannot sell/remortgage it without them being repaid first.

  • Ann says:

    I have 2 children with my ex husband and have received £310 per month for the last 10 years, my ex has received a pay rise every year during this time but my maintenace hasnt increased. In may 2011 my son left school, my ex asked for his maintenance to be reassessed, fair enough you might think, he claimed for increased housing costs (he lied) decreased earnings (he lied), it took csa 5 months to reassess his maintenance payment and they say he now has to pay £203 per month, between june and november, 6 months he paid me £1860, their assessment for 6 months is £1218, an overpayment of £642 (my figures) they say £1218 ??, my ex has been paying £160 per month since Nov. Ive contacted csa to appeal, they dont want to know, Ive written to them today (they dont listen on the phone). He works for HMRC!!!

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