please help – csa say my partner owes £43,000

My partner had a good relationship with his two children from his ex wife, when he first split from her 2001 (she was having an affair),he had a very well paid job and was paying her £150 per week for about a year, until he lost his job, which then intern he had some sort of mental breakdown. He was unable to return to work until 2005, when he got with me. (His ex also started another new relationship after another affair).

In the four years that he was`nt working he continued to see the children every weekend, she was happy not receiving any moneys as she was in a new relationship in which she had another child, (she failed to mention that she had put in a claim to the CSA when they first split,(when he earnt good money) which she never cancelled, and he knew nothing about) He then moved in with me and my 2children from a previous, things were great, all the children got on really well and formed good relationships (step brothers and sisters) (did I mention that we were all friends, and that’s how I met my partner, she was fine with this).

Then my partner and I decided to have a baby together to complete our family unit, things were great whilst I was pregnant, but as soon as our daughter was born, god how she changed, stopped our contact with the kids, filled the children’s heads with all sorts of rubbish, anyway we moved to a bigger house after I fell pregnant again, then the letter came from the CSA in 2007, which was the first my partner heard, saying they wanted £15,000 in arrears, and £120 per week, we filled in the forms stating the moneys we get, and that we just couldn’t afford to pay that sort of money, we heard nothing back until march this year, shortly after the birth of our son, stating that his ex had put in a new claim (she is now married), they don`t take her husbands income into account but they take mine “child tax credit and child benefit,” which is what the government has assessed us in needing to live off.

Her husband earns over a thousand pound a week, my partner bearly gets 600 a month. So they assessed us on our moneys and decided that he has to pay 25% of his (our) earnings working out at £66 per week, which unfortunately we still cant afford that. The CSA doesn`t care about the fact we have 4 children to support on a low income, that’s NOT there problem I was told in a phone conversation.(Also I discovered that if I went back to work to cover the moneys taken by the CSA, then they would take even more off of us, so basically this has stuffed up my plans into returning to work).

I then contacted our local MP, they contacted the CSA on our behalf, stating that they must be able to reduce the payments as we just cant AFFORD it, we then received the letter, saying they`ve been contacted by the houses of parlement, and this is there new result, we still have too pay £66 which they are now going to take direct from his wages and we NOW owe £43,000, (we obviously upset the CSA by trying to go above there heads) which if we don`t pay he faces prison, losing his liecence, and the bailifs coming to take MY things (as he had nothing when he moved in with me), this is having such a negative affect on our family, I`m not saying he shouldn`t pay anything, but how can the CSA legally put our children into poverty, to benefit the other 2, when there family unit is well benefitted already, please is there someone out there that can help, my parnter has talked about ending it all……I don`t know if he means litrally, he is now depressed as am I, please can someone offer some advise……….