My hell with the CSA, my husband and his ex

16yrs ago my now husband had a daughter with Ex-partner, basically she got pregnant then threw him out (she is 5 yrs older than him) things didnt go smoothly she used his daughter as a weapon telling him if he didnt pay her money he wasnt to see his child. Back then he had a good job and he thought he was “doing the right thing” by paying hi Ex £80 per week he thought this was an acceptable amount because his Ex was not working and bringing up his child.

A few years later We got together but she would not allow me to see the child ONLY he had to go to her house and see her.. cutting along story short 3years later WE decided we would move in together and back then it was just as cheap to get a mortgage as it was to rent so we decided to buy.. ( an investment for the future, and we both had good job incomes )my husband continued to pay his Ex £80 per week for his daughter.

1 year later i became pregnant we were both happy about it,when i got to 32 wks the company we worked for made me start my maternity leave due to insurance reasons..Because i now had a lower income and the mortgage still had to be paid my husband lowered his payments by £30 to £50 to his Ex, this caused an almighty upraw in both partys— she wouldnt let him see the child because he lowered the payments but we couldnt afford to pay our mortgage and keep the roof over our new childs head if he continued paying £80 per week there wasnt much we could do, my husband sought legal represantation to see his child… which cost us a bloody fortune since it ended up going to court…( tell more later)

THEN that dreaded letter CSA arrived But at his mums address not our address,they stated that because he IGNORED there letters they had done an interim assessment based on his earnigs he had to pay £96 per week plus arrears for 5 years ( his Ex had told them where he worked)… WHOA !!! hang on what letters had we ignored???? we had never received anything!!!!We contacted the CSA asking what was going on, they said they had wrote on numerous occassions and he had ignored there letters,and they were now going to put and attachment of earnings on his wages, constantly hitting a brick wall with the same question WHAT LETTERS???( they wanted him to confirm his address which he did only to be told the address on file didnt match, when he asked for the address on file IT WAS HER ADDRESS???

where he lived with her…eh confusing why would the CSA be writing to him at Her address for him to make payments to her??? ( totally baffeled- so were we BUT we figured it out a few years later His EX was claiming Income support since he had left, and he was paying her £80 per week, when CSA got involved if she had TOLD the truth about the amount of money he had paid, SHE would have had to pay the Government back the money she had claimed in single parent benefit…. yeh she wasnt doing bad for herself was she, getting her rent/council tax paid getting £65/70 per week in benefits AND £80 per week from us, BUT she darnt TELL the benefits that because she would have been done for fraud, SO all that she declaired to CSA was that my husband only gave her £10 per week, Hence the £17k + of arrears…which technacally we had already paid to her at £80 pw.)

He explained his NEW curcumstance ( me & new baby)they said they would re-assess….NOW back then CSA to into account your earning minus Rent/Mortgage and Council tax.

They did the re-assessment and my husband had to pay £44.65 per week… ok thats fine by us ( it was £5 less than what we were paying her without them involved)BUT we had now incorporated arrears for non payment from previous years this had racked up to 17k+ and they wanted £50 aweek to clear the debt…err hello you now want £94.65 per week we couldnt afford that, they even sent us a giro check printed out for the full balance of the arrears ( oh yeh we have just got 17k+ lying around the house doing nothing).

Because of the debts mounting up with the CSA i went back to work full time just 3 months after our daughter was born To make ends meet,I didnt see her first smile/ first step etc…. WE fought the CSA with solicitors /councillors etc, NOT about the maintainance we agreed this to be a fair amount about the arrears, because she had lied about the money she received of my husband and now the CSA wanted us to pay it again.

In 2003 we had another child that wasn’t planned ( but i wouldnt be with out her)..I was determing to see and be there to watch my 2nd daughter grow up that i went back to work part-time 24hrs a week, i needed to work to meet our out going payments, mortgage council tax etc…

a few months went by then His Ex then cancelled the CSA?? ( confusing!! NO devious bitch)she waited 13 weeks then re-applied under “The New System!!!! WHOA a new system design to help PWC, Bollocks a new system to finantially ruin NRP & NRPP BECAUSE now the new system doesnt NOT take into account Rent /Mortgage or Council tax, it is basically a % of NRP wages…

By them taking a % of his wages we were ruined payments virtually doubled,needless to say arguement started in our house our children were upset caught inbetween, We struggled to pay the CSA at a cost of my children doing with out new clothes/shoes, my children having to stop having school meals and taking sandwiches, our family not having holidays, having to sell our car to pay off debts AND the biggest cost of all was nearly getting our family home reposessed, it would have been reposessed if my mum had not helped us out by getting a loan in her name and giving us the money….My mum would not see Her daughter/son-in-law and 2 Grandchild out on the streets of Manchester, and we couldnt move in with her she has a 1 bedroom flat.!!!

Court order to see his child: his Ex was a total bitch in court denying him everything but it was obvious to the judge she was just being vindective so granted my husband everything he asked for..perental responsibality , access every weeked with over night stays and a minimum of at least 2 weeks continus stay in the 6 wk school holidays… So what did she go and do??? packed up her belongngs and move herself and child to Oxford, therefore my husband dont get access to his child, back to court we went …. she broke the order but there was nothing we could do because she still lived in England.In 2007 the company we worked for went bust ! Luckly i managed to find a job part-time within a month, my husband wasnt this fortunate he had to sign on, but because of what i was earning and us getting tax credits he wasn’t entitled to any money from the benefits.

CSA payment were reduced because of him being on JSA, we had to get a debt managment company envolved because my earning didnt’t cover all our out goings. In 2009 he got a job but it was self-employed and term time, work get paid / no work in school holidays no pay…. well at least it was better than nothing, CSA contact us again because Ex asked for assessment because He’s now working…..they do there assessment BUT can only estimate what he might earn because he’s self-employed ok fair dues, because he has no loss or proffit figures as he hasnt been self employed for 12 months they keep the payment at £5 per week and £50 towards the arrears and would review it in April of the following year after his tax returns had been filed…. this same application applied to the tax credits..

2010 tax returns done CSA informed of earnings, Tax credits claim pack filled in with income details etc….

CSA come back with assessment of…. £5 per week and £50 towards arrears, they set this out in a letter of how much was to be paid between certain dates, then on X date the payments reduced to just £5 per week because the arrears had finished, this was to continue until September/ october of this year, as his daughter was 16 in july of this year… depending on wether she stayed in full-time education would depend on if he had to contine paying maintance…

His daughter informed us in August she had got a place at college but needed help with the funding ????? surly a college course is free for a 16yr old???We looked into it and contacted the college,the 2yr media course she wanted to do wasnt free but you could apply for a bursary to help finantially with course fees and travel fees. we explaind this to his daughter, to which we got Yeh i know, i couldnt get the bursary for the course fees but did get a bursary for the travel fees…. ok send us the details and we will see what we can do about payment!!!

3 days after this conversation 23 /8 /12 i went into hospital for major surgary, while in hospital we went throught the college forms and bursary proceedures… the course fees were approx £200 per year, (i know its not alot for and education but it is alot when you only get SSP, husbands income is less than £100 per week and we have 2 children and out goings aswell.)

If i hadn’t been in hospital and on SSP things might have been different! we explained over the phone there was no-way we could afford to pay the £200 by the end of August because i wasnt in working after having major surgery, this yet again caused an arguement between my husband and his daughter, her saying that He doesnt care about her, doesnt help her finantially and that she constantly has to rely on her mum and her mums new partner for money…slams phone down!!!!( her mum and new partner have been together about 5 years and have a daughter 2yrs old) Right lets clear up some missed facts!!!

1)why didnt she get a college bursary for course fees.???….. bursary for couse fees is done on how much the household income is PLUS any earnings from employment of children 16yrs or older and you must be in receipt of certain benefits ie JSA,Income support, tax credits….to claim the bursary the TOTAL household income HAS to be less than 23k….

2) the travel bursay is worked out pretty much the same ONLY the house-hold income has to be less than 25k….

these are not random figures this is what it states on the college website where you down-load the bursary form from to apply for it….

So now we have a rough idea of what his Ex’s house hold income is more than 23k but less than 25k ( his Ex works part-time, her new partner works full-time they have a child together and my husbands daughter also works, shes had her “saturday job” for over 12 months, only now it isnt Just a saturday job, she works on average 16/20 hours a week) We know this because OUR daughter talks to her “step-sister” via txt messages and a social networking site….

2 weeks ago the CSA contacted us stating that our curcumstance’s had changed ? and they were going to be doing a new assessment….. we argued this saying our curcumstances have not changed in 3years ( since my husband got a job back in 2009 )of which they knew about!They said they had been informed by “someone”….yeh we know who, the Ex…..CSA let it slip on the phone…..CSA stated the assessment would be done on my husbands tax returns for the year 2010 to 2011 as self-employed people have to be assessend on What they’ve actually earnt at the end of the tax year and not an estimation of what they might earn…. OK fine do what ever we said…

Yesterday we receive a phone call from CSA…. because my husbands income HAD changed… WE were in receipt of Tax Credits ….

WHOA there our income had not changed.. we have been in receipt of Tax credits for over 9 years and the tax credits are based on our JOINT income of aroud 14k…. NOT soley my husbands income…its a JOINT income with 2 dependants…When the CSA person looked into it she came back with ” we can not touch the Working Element of Tax Credit” as that is Paid to me as i am the highest earner for our family but we will be adding the Child Element to Mr.X (My husband)earnigns and basing the assessment on that…

How can they do this..?? my husband and i get the tax credits because we are on a low income, The tax credits are based on our House-hold income and how many dependants living in the house,CSA state they can-not touch my income to pay for husbands previous children.. BUT they are using my income to make HIS assessment….because it is my income that is included on the tax credit forms to get the amount tax credit we get…therefore i am paying towards a child that is not mine and MY own children are losing out because of it….

If my husband and i seperated again Neither of us would get the amount of tax credit we currently get as a JOINT claim, for sure we lose 1 side of the “family element” because there would only be 1 parent not 2, if i had the children my husband would lose the child element he would only have the working element… i would have both but still wouldnt receive the same amount as a joint couple, I know this because we have seperated once before, and thats what happened..

His Ex’s house hold income is around 10k more than ours, she gets some form of tax credits for her 2 children, but the CSA are taking MY childrens credits based partially on my earnings to pay her and my husbands child…. how does the Government deam this as fair… to take from one low income childs mouth to feed another child whos income is higher????

And whats more my husbands daughter earns more than him BUT because her college course is 9hours a week this is deamed as a full-time course, therefore her mum is still entitled to claim Child Benefit for her witch inturn allows her to claim CSA payment… Oh and to put the icing on the cake the CSA are now going to back date this claim to 2010 because thats when it ” flagged up” we got tax credits, so yet again were screwed finantially by the government…

But why are they allowed to back date this claim, If this is a new claim?? its not as if my husband hadn’t been paying CSA and at anytime in the last 2/3 years his Ex could have asked for an assessment to be done and it surly would have ” flagged up” tax credits then, his Ex was obviously happy with what she was getting because in the past she’s asked for an assessment every 6 months ???..

my husband and i are seriously contemplating quitting work and going on benefits, either way were going to lose our family home so might as well put it up for sale, get a rented house and go on benefits, and at least our kids would have a fighting chance, we’d get our rent paid or at least some of it, council tax would be paid, kids would get free school meals and uniform grants, we’d only have to pay for gas, electric, water and buy food, might even be able to afford a holiday like other people we know on benefits….

I’m not saying that my husband shouldn’t pay towards his daughters up-bringing, what i am saying is that the CSA should leave the tax credits out of it. BUT i also think that assessments on PWC household income should be done and that if the qualifying child works even though in college this should be assessed too.

In my opinion there should be a limit to the PWC house hold income similar to that of a bursary for college..

I think that this would be fairer on ALL the children from previous relationships AND the children within new relationships…. No man or woman should be penilised by the government because a relationship that bore a child / children broke down and now they’ve moved on with their lives..

I have even posted a letter to Mr Cameron today out-lining this situation regarding tax credits, it probably wont do us much good as by the time the Government do out about it it will be all over for us as my husbands daughter will be 18 in 19 months and the Ex and CSA can get screwed. Our children will still be in school so might have a fighting chance of a decent life-style, that is if my husband hasn’t committed suicide by then, yes i am being serious its been tempted before and he is still on anti-depressents…

thats englands government for you take from the poor and feed the rich.