It hardly seems worth working with what the CSA leaves me with
My ex has recently applied for Child support despite the fact that I have my children around 178 nights in the year.
I am on minimum wage and have another child to care for although i do not live with my partner. I sent CSA the correct documents including my ourt order that specifies how many nights on average i have my 2 children, they came back with a figure which i queried as it seemed high and differed to the ballpark figure given on their website. I rang them and they said there ha been an error and could i send the info again, which i did.
Again the same amount was returned, apparently because my ex had denied that i have my kids as much as the order states, despite that she had no proof to back this up and they had taken her word for it against my evidence! I gave them my bank detail and thought that was the end of it, i chased them up with a few calls to see if and when they were going to sort out this ‘error’. Nothing was done, now they say that I owe arrears (even though they havent actually come to a final figure) and wha they want me to pay is almost half my wage, leaving me with no financial breathing room at all. My ex works and gets benefit and lives comfortably. I have my children almost the same amount yearly as she does and have to pay for he honour.
Its wrecking my life, my current relationship and i dont know what to do. It hardly seems worth working!
8 thoughts on “It hardly seems worth working with what the CSA leaves me with”
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I wouldt work, seems pointless that your ex lives in luxury while you struggle,
They ain’t allowed to take half of your wage. The max is 40%
And this is with arrears. Don’t give up keep complaining and do it in writing. If they ring you. State to them that you want everything in writing .
It’s easy to say the wrong thing by telephone.
20% for 2 children plus 20% for arrears. Argue on the arrears. I’m sure the csa make mistakes to bleed NRP dry
They have guidelines to follow.
Remember only contact them by letter. And forward copies onto your mp
The csa ‘pretended’ they had tried to contact me then slapped a deo on my pay, when the amount being deducted rose every week to accommodate ‘arrears’ it got too much. After taking 80% of my net pay one week I gave up my job.
Some arrogant little twonk actually had the audacity to come on here and have a go at me about that! Some people are so up themselves they just don’t have a clue.
So the csa are responsible for my ex getting NOTHING and another person on benefit. (paid for by YOUR taxes you dull csa twonks)
My advice to anyone spiltting up/getting divorced etc is beg, steal, work a fiddle, SIGN ON THE DOLE and bring this piddling little defeated country to its knees until the idiots that run it wake up and shut the csa down.
J, Well said, its about time this country realised were not going to lay down and take this shit, the only people CSA are helping are themselves,
@ Dave -I am sorry that your ex has decided not to be honest about the nights that the children stay over with you. Do you have any evidence other than the court order which states the level of overnight access you are entitled to. I appreciate that anyone would consider a court order as being rock solid proof of overnight stays, however a court order states what access an NRP is entitled to and not necessarily what actually happens – Do you have a diary or calendar marked with the specific dates the children stayed with you? If you do then you can submit this as further evidence. Also, do the children attend any clubs etc near to you on the nights that they stay with you – youth club, swimming, football clubs etc – attending such things can be good evidence especially if you live some distance apart from your ex which would mean it would be unlikely that they would be able to attend these clubs if they were not staying at your house.
If you do not have a diary or calendar for the past start keeping a record of the nights the children stay with you and after 3 months re-apply for shared care allowance.
You can also ask for the arrears part of the payments to be renegotiated – the regular maintenance is not negotiable.
J – when the CSA send a DEO to your employer there will be an amount stated as your protected earnings rate – this should be 60% of your salary. If your employer deducted 80% of your net income in 1 week they will have breached the protected earnings rate. The 60% figure is based on your average weekly salary (or monthly if you are paid monthly) – if your wages fluctuate drastically from week to week the protected earnings rate should mean that less than the amount requested by the CSA is deducted by your employer.
To put it in simple terms if you earn £400 one week (day shift) and £800 the following week (night shift) your average weekly wage would be shown on as £600, if the DEO was set at a max 40% this would mean that the CSA would be asking for £240 – your protected earnings would be set at £360
so on a low paid week the employer should only take £40 and leave you with the £360 protected earnings – the following week when the income is higher the employer would be obliged to make up any shortfall from the previous week – you would still have £360 protected earnings of £360 but the employer could deduct the £240 for that week’s DEO payment and and a further £200 for the shortfall from the previous week.
“Alice on February 11th, 2013 – J – when the CSA send a DEO to your employer there will be an amount stated as your protected earnings rate – this should be 60% of your salary. If your employer deducted 80% of your net income in 1 week they will have breached the protected earnings rate.”
Thank you ‘alice’. My wages were fairly ‘static’ so there should not have been a problem. The usual ‘buck passing’ has taken place, csa claim it is down to employer, employer claim they were instructed by csa etc.
I think I am still in time (statute of limitations) to bring a case of constructive dismissal against employer but will check my data prints first, will it say in there how much to be deducted? I’ve never seen the DEO.
J – when the DEO was issued you should have been issued with a collection schedule as well – this would include a table of payments being asked for. There is a breakdown of total amount, amount for RM and amount for arrears (the employer does not get the breakdown as they are not entitled to know if you are in arrears) – It will also show your protected earnings rate.
As your wages were fairly static (I assume a small fluctuation re overtime/commission/bonus or such like) then the protected earnings figure on the DEO sent to your employer should have been accurate on a week to week basis and as such there should not have been a situation where 80% of your wages were deducted. If there is a DEO in place and the NRP employer is not able to take the requested amount due to protected earnings being breached – say for example if the NRP was on unpaid leave or off sick and being paid SSP – then the employer should, where possible, recoup the shortfall once the NRP’s wages allows, BUT they must still not breach the protected earnings – so if normal income is £200, protected earnings will be £120, and deductions were £40 per week, NRP is off sick on SSP and no deduction is taken week 1 and 2, shortfall is 2 weeks @ £40 = £80. NRP then returns to work week 3 – employer should deduct £40 for that week’s deduction, this leaves a balance of £20 which the employer can deduct for the shortfall, the employer would continue to take the extra £20 per week until the full shortfall is paid off.
The agency can re-issue you with a copy of your collection schedule and this will show the figures being asked for – if the employer has taken more than was requested and have breached the protected earnings rate then (not passing the buck) it is the employer who is at fault. I would suggest that if you do not have the collection schedule you contact the agency and request it be re-issued to you as this would back up your case for constructive dismissal.
Although the DEO issued to the employer details the protected earnings rate as a £’s figure employers are also issued with a booklet detailing their responsibilities and there is a section on protected earnings – in the booklet it states that the protected earnings are 60% of an employees net income. There is also a helpline for employers to call if they have any queries. Personally I feel it would be better for the protected earnings rate to be shown as 60% on the DEO and I (along with others) have fed this back up the tree but as yet the agency have not changed the PER section on the DEO.
I can’t remember the ref of the booklet issued to employers but will check it tomorrow and let you know – it might be handy for your CD case if you had a copy of it as well.
“Alice on February 12th, 2013 7:15 pm
J – when the DEO was issued you should have been issued with a collection schedule as well – this would include a table of payments being asked for.”
Thank you for the info.Nothing like that received by me at all and can’t find any reference to any of what you have mentioned in my data prints. In fairness there is a lot in there, I’ve been fighting this nonsense for nearly six years now. Can you tell me what section I would find it?
While I feel the csa have been ‘corrupt’ in trying to cover their own mistakes, there is no doubt the employer (a major nationwide firm) were also lacking in the way they dealt with my case.
The csa knew within a week that I had made a claim for benefit as the jobcentre contacted them (using your fab computer system), that much s in the data prints.
The csa didnt send the employer the appropriate enquiry form (csa191 or whatever the new one is) and didnt take any action to contact me until four months later! While they claim ‘not to have received info from me’ they are still bound by the rule in Kerr and should have applied an interim assesment.
Meanwhile the employer (who had the DEO) didnt inform the csa for three months and then got my leaving date wrong!
I’m fighting the incomepetence of the csa AND the employer! Point is I wasnt working, they had the proof I wasnt working and just failed to act.
Anyway, let me know where I can find the info you quoted and I’ll check it out.
Thank you.