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CSA Advice

My ex is being rewarded for being dishonest – does anyone have a similar story?

5 May 2013 by Mike Gabbott

I have being paying child support for child I do not have contact with. When I contacted the CSA, to see if payments were due to end, as the child is now 18, I received a letter saying the case had closed 6 years ago, presumably because her new partner has adopted the child and child benefit was no longer payable.

The CSA have said they can only consider reimburstments for the last 2-3 months, thereby leaving me thousands out of pocket. When the child was 16 I did not pay for a period, as I was unsure if payments were applicable, until the CSA contacted to demand payents, and catch up payments, probably because the mother had been in touch with them. It would seem they did not think to check that payments were still applicable.

I find it incredible that I am losing out for playing by the rules, while she is being rewarded for being dishonest, essentially a benefit cheat. Has anyone got a similar story, and what was he outcome?

13 thoughts on “My ex is being rewarded for being dishonest – does anyone have a similar story?”

  1. complain and get your MP involved, the defualt action of the CSA is to lie and aim to defraud you, do not believe a word they say, complain and then get your data file as will tell you all you need to know, then you can go to the independent case examiner and then the ombudsman, do not let them fob you off, keep on at them untill they listen.

    They are lying scum so be prepared for a long battle but if you can get your MP on board it speeds up the process.

  2. Similar thing happened to me. I was off long term sick in a previous job whilst the hounds were chasing me and ended up on Incapacity Benefit. Out of this, I still managed to pay cash in hand to my ex whilst she was also claiming benefits. I returned to work and we worked out a more substantial amount, with an agreement that I would also contribute towards clothes etc. She then meets a new guy who is “in between jobs” then suddenly the CSA do a new assessment on me and before we know it I’m required to pay through them. Turns out he added his claim to hers so that then she would be required to add me into the mix! So to cut a long story short, they also looked at the time when I was off sick, and even when they admitted that the case should have been closed rather than laying dormant, all they did was apologise and didn’t do a re-assessment on me. Then there was a point where they were unclear as to whether I should pay or not. Before I knew it I was slapped with an attachment of earnings order. I lobbied my MP, I went through the Independent Case Examiner, only to be told that the “Decision Maker” had made the decision not to amend or adjust anything. I have to say that the Complaints Resolution Officer was a really nice guy, actually spoke to me like I was a human being, but as for the rest of those people at the CSA, they treat you with contempt from the word ‘go’.

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