My long complaint letter to the CSA

THIS IS A COPY OF A LETTER SENT TO THE CSA, I DO NOT MIND YOU PUBLISHING IT AS LONG AS MY NAME, ADDRESS AND OTHER IDENTIFYING FACTS AND NAMES HAVE BEEN REMOVED, I AM AWAITING THE OUTCOME.

Dear Sir / Madam

My apologies in advance: this is likely to match War and Peace in size.

I am trying to resolve a matter which has been a bugbear for many years. I will have to start from the beginning in order to bring you up to speed with my case.

Before the CSA was born I had to deal through the courts for maintenance for my 2 eldest daughters named above. When the CSA started I asked for it to be processed through the CSA as he had proved to be a slippery character where paying for his kids was concerned. You eventually found him but he had changed his name, in this time he had also denied all / any knowledge of fathering these two children – irrespective of him signing the birth certificate. He then changed his job and didn’t tell you – or me, so the whole attachment of earnings procedure had to start again, and again. He did this several times until you eventually tracked him down to working at ******. He then suddenly said that the children stayed with him for 2 nights every week { he had been told that his payments would be reduced if this was the case}. An advisor form the CSA asked him to verify which was correct – was he denying all knowledge of the kids or did he actually know them? He said that they stayed 2 nights every week and always had done however, the CSA did not believe him and he was ordered to pay for the upkeep of his children.

They didn’t see him regularly and they didn’t stay at his house any nights. As the years went by he failed on many occasions to pay the money and he had amassed arrears of thousands of pounds which just before the old CSA system went over to new CSA system. I lived at **** for the main of my dealings with you. Once the new system came in all maintenance from him stopped. I rang several times and was told it was down to the new system being updated and that the money would be recovered and that it was likely he would still be paying off his arrears when Lauren – my eldest – was 26 – at the current rate. Still I had no payments.

I rang the CSA about this and just got the same message back, “the money was still in the system as arrears and he would still be liable to pay it”, regardless of how long I had to wait for these highly technological systems to update and amend everything.

Last year I rang again and spoke to a lady called Jackie who looked into it for me and came back to me with a mighty “Eureka”!!! She told me that there were various amounts still stuck in limbo which she attributed to the old system/ new system cock ups, she also said that because it hadn’t been dealt with – despite numerous requests – that I would also be entitled for compensation for “maladministration” because of the constant failings of the CSA. I don’t need to remind you of how many times these failings have been in the media, sadly I was one of them. She said she would ring me back within 6 weeks and she would personally oversee a conclusion and the recovery of money due. She never rang back. I left it about 8 weeks then rang back again – { I was living at **** at this point} on this occasion I couldn’t get through because I couldn’t remember the security question I had been asked to provide. I didn’t remember doing this security question and the advisor terminated the call.

I haven’t heard anything from the CSA from that day to this but do begrudge the fact that there is money outstanding which is due to me from the last 20 years which ****eluded/avoided paying and you have failed in what you were set up to do – tackle wastes of space like ****.

Since then I had a conversation with an old workmate of his who said he had been telling him how the CSA wrote off over £5000 of maintenance for **** and **** and how he was laughing all the way to the bank because the hadn’t “got him” for a child he fathered in Bradford in 1986. The Bradford child and mother are not my concern, or his by the sound of it. His arrears however are my concern because it is money which is rightfully mine.

As a bit of additional information, years ago I applied for Housing and Council Tax benefit and it was at the time when maintenance payments were included as income in assessing any benefit given. I had a letter from the CSA saying that he had to pay around £141-00 a month so on that basis they gave me a minimal allowance. I went through sheer humiliation with the local council in trying to state that although you had said he had to pay X amount, he WASN’T paying ANY amount, so instantly I was over £140 a month down and still had to find most of my rent myself because they worked it out on what you said he “should” have paid. I asked the CSA for a letter to say that he had arrears and was generally a bad payer but was told they could not send a letter to that effect – so I struggled on with no other option.

So in vain or not I am now writing to you before I take any other actions, to ask you if you could remedy this once and for all. I am relying on the fact that all your calls are recorded to verify what I am trying to convey in this letter. As far as failings go, this one is poor even by the standards of what is printed in the papers and I am not willing to let it go on any longer. It seems that I have to fight for everything I get and although I am way past talking to **** I do want any money that I am owed and I am curiously interested to see what you come back to me with, if anything.

I do know that for many months / years I didn’t get ANY money from you which you should have recovered from him and I am not willing to accept a £20 goodwill payment for all the inconvenience you have caused me.

Before I end my letter I want to mention my youngest daughter ****, child of **** . He didn’t sign the birth certificate and denied all knowledge of ever knowing me or **** – this was regardless of him being registered at a GP from my address and from DVLA when he registered vehicles / motorbikes at my address. He eventually gave in and now pays £5 a week because he is self employed. I disputed this because he said he earned between £5 and £50 a week and could afford anymore.

I sent information to the CSA on his dodgy accountant who managed to reduced £39000 earnings down to just over £2000, I gave information on money he had earned and purchase he had made and was told it had been passed to HM Customs and Excise because if he only earned such a minimal amount how could he explain paying £500 a month rent for his Tattoo shop, his works van, a £8k Harley Davison motorbike, a Honda Chopper and a Suzuki Bandit as well as £25000 in stock in his shop. All my hard work amounted to nothing, he still pays £5 a week and now has 2 shops, a car, 3 bikes, a van – all on earnings of under £100 a week. The whole system is designed to help people like **** and **** and to make sure that the mums who are left holding the babies have a long hard struggle.

The last time I enquired about **** {which is under the new system} I was told I could apply for a “Variation Order” I think it was called. This was a document for me to fill in to say I didn’t agree with the amount he says he is earning but to be honest I am sick of fighting and trying to do your job for you.

That last paragraph is supplementary information only, it just highlights how many times you have failed people like me on so many different levels.

Regarding the situation with **** I would like all monies which are stuck in your system and collecting interest – to be paid to me as soon as is humanly possible. Any payments for maladministration, pain, heartache, grief, phone calls and anything else- would be a bonus. I won’t be holding my breath in all this so I can assure you I will be around for when you eventually sort it out.

I would also like to know the details of every call I made to the CSA in my attempts to try and sort out what you were set up to do, which will span from the day the CSA was set up, right up until the last time I spoke with you when I was living at Elland last year.

Thank you