She is hiding her income so that she doesn’t have to help her children

I’m the father of two lovely kids aged 9 and 6, they live with me full time since I was awarded residency after splitting with their mother in December 2012.

She used to collect the kids from school everyday and then I would collect from her before taking them home, however whilst in court in June 2013 she announced that she was unable to do this anymore as it interfered with her working.

I said that’s fine but I want some help towards childcare as I too work full time, she flatly refused to help and the judge said I should go through the csa.

I called the csa to inform them I needed to make a claim and told them how my ex had 2 businesses and also worked part time at Tesco. After a month or two they awarded me the paltry amount of £18 a week.

I immediately complained and again explained that she was running 2 businesses aswell as her tesco work, yet they said that as she declares neither of her businesses that they could only use her tesco wages as proof of income.

They then asked me to gather evidence of her income to prove she was living a lifestyle inconsistent of earnings. This I did after driving to Northampton and taking pictures of her car and van outside the 3 bedroom house she is renting (I live near heathrow).

I also provided copies of messages where she boasts of going to Thailand and USA, Facebook status updates about her new market business and written proof from the court that she wouldn’t help with kids because she had to work.

I was told it could take up to 6 months for them to investigate so gave them time to consider (feeling i had probided enough to prove she was living well beyond her part time wages). Yet after sending this to them they rejected my claim with no reason given to myself, I called to ask what was happening and was told it was rejected in November yet they never contacted me to say why and inform me of their decision.

Worse still they informed me she had now given up tesco and was on benefits herself meaning she wouldn’t have to pay anything from now on. Obviously I am furrious with her and the csa and now the benefits people, I have provided all the evidence they asked for yet they choose to ignore it and allow her to get away without supporting her children.

I find it incredulous that she can give up work and be allowed to claim benefits when she obviously is lying and just trying to avoid providing for her kids.

I’m now awaiting another letter from the csa so I can again claim that she is hiding her income which I know will do nothing, I have told the benefits people that she is fraudulently claiming and yet she continues to get away with it time after time.

What really pains me is that if it had gone the other way and she had the children j know the csa would have helped themselves to my wages and not cared if I had enough to get by, these people are beyond useless and it is an absolute disgrace that they don’t enforce a minimum payment when it’s soo obvious that someone is playing the system.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.