The CSA don’t have to answer to anyone but themselves

Good evening,

I’ve dipped in and out of the website over the past few months, using the advice, stories and experience of fellow posters to help aid my struggle with the CSA.

I guess I wanted to add my story in the hope that I can gain some support and reassurance that my experiences and resulting feelings towards the CSA are justified and that I am not being very unreasonable.

I guess in short my story is this.
11 years ago, I had a daughter with a partner. We were both very young and naive, and as a result, our relationship only lasted a few years. After the split I continued to see my Daughter every other weekend and one night a week- keeping regular contact was very important to me. Since the split, my ex-partner and I agreed a fixed monthly amount, (in-line with the recommendation on-line CSA calculator). This was a private agreement, and as such, worked for around 18 months. Then, following an argument over a matter, the ex decided to contact the CSA to collect monies. This wasn’t a problem. They assessed the case, and it turned out that within about a couple of pounds I was paying the correct amount.

I guess the difficulties started when I meet my new partner, who later became my wife, and we had two boys together. My Daughter (from my previous relationship, still being an only child), found it difficult to integrate, and as such, I started to see her less and less, to the point where she refused to visit and stay with us. My ex-partner contacted the CSA for a reassessment, (totally within her rights to..), and they re-assessed the case. Payments went up and everything carried on as normal.

Until, some months later, when the CSA again contacted me regarding the case, requesting additional details around our sons, and other children in our home, salary information etc. This again was all given, and an adjusted amount was paid to the CSA for my Daughter. The new figure had also accrued some additional ‘arrears’, of several under pounds. They were unable to confirm exactly how and why, but apologised for the mis-calculation and increased the monthly amount to cover the arrears.

After several years of being together with the wife, she decided that infidelity was a good option, and we separated.

Count- One ex-partner, with a daughter. One ex-wife with two sons.

I continued to pay the CSA for my daughter, and updated the details with them around the new living arrangements, mainly being that I no-longer had any children living with me following the separation. They ‘re-calculated’ the case and gave me a new figure to pay. The figure was insanely high, and failed to take into account the fact that I was now also paying maintenance directly to my ex-wife for my two sons. So, they had to contact my ex-wife, confirm the number of nights I had my two sons for, to help them adjust the payment figure for my Daughter. They advised my ex-wife of the amount I should also pay towards the boys via our private arrangement.

Since splitting from my ex-wife, I moved to a nearby town, around 35mins drive away from the boys. The private arrangement we had was that I would pay her a little under the advised CSA amount each month, as I was doing all the back and forth driving, collections and drop-offs. This suited her, as she was now pregnant with her 6th child…

All was fine. CSA were collecting for my daughter, and I was paying directly to my ex-wife for the boys. Due to a scale-down at work, I was forced to reduce my position, this meant that I was earning around £100 less a month. I tried to maintain the amounts to the CSA and private arrangement for as long as possible, but eventually, I was forced to ‘fearfully’, contact the CSA and update them of the reduction of earnings. This is where it all went horribly wrong…!!!

I was advised that (in short), due to calculation errors made by the CSA, and the various caseworkers who had worked on the cases over the last four years, there were arrears on the account attached to my daughter. Arrears totally £1300!! I was absolutely panicked!! Bearing in-mind I had contacted them to say that despite trying to maintain a higher amount to my children for the last year, I now needed a reassessment, they were now hitting me with a huge arrears amount. They openly admitted that the errors were through absolutely no fault of my own, I had cooperated, payed on time, and give details when required, but the arrears were still my responsibility.

As part of the case proceedings, they also contacted my ex-wife to check what I had been paying her since they ‘took the private arrangement into consideration’. She confirmed the figures I had told them, and the gentleman basically told my ex-wife, that ‘…Despite your private agreement, if you claim monies from you ex-husband through the CSA, we can get you more, and he will also still have to do all the driving, as it was his decision to move away from his children’.

My ex-wife, having now had her 6th child, and struggling with bills no-doubt agreed to this. And due to the CSA ‘taking my case with the two boys into account in April, they have calculated that there also arrears due to my ex-wife, totaling almost £700. DESPITE, the fact we had a private agreement, which the ex-wife has now decided to go against.

So in summary, I have the CSA admitting mus-calculations on their part, which have incurred me £1300 worth of arrears. They have also actively advised my ex-wife to come out of our private agreement, which has now equated to a further £700 of ‘arrears’. So in total, c. £2000 worth of ‘arrears’, generated through CSA bullying tactics, and maladministration of my case for the last four years.

The thing I don’t understand, and this is something I have read on here a lot, is that the CSA appear to be above the law, and beyond reproach. They can make errors and miscalculations that affect peoples lives, causing them massive amounts of undue stress, anxiety and worry, yet they seem to be answerable to nobody.

The way in which I was spoken to and treated by a finance collector, working in the Belfast office today was deplorable. I was called a liar, and was threatened with a Deductions at source order, as I refused to setup a schedule with them there and then on the phone. I stated that I was not refusing to pay the monthly maintenance amounts for either case, and was happy to pay what was required, however I was not happy to agree a schedule until the total arrears had been fully calculated for both cases. (Surely anybody has the right to a full understanding of their finances before being pushed into agreeing to a repayment schedule?!?!)

For a father who has never once refused to cooperate with the CSA or tried to withhold information, and has always paid anything they have requested in respect of his children, I feel as though I was being made-out to be a shirking criminal, and someone who was trying to get-off with paying what he was required to.

In short, the CSA are a law unto themselves. They can calculate, mis-calculate, bully, push, intimidate; admit to several years of blatant maladministration, and yet, they are answerable and accountable to nobody. The result is that a Father who has always honored his financial responsibilities to his children is being made to feel like a criminal.

The worst point of the whole thing is that will following the CSA complaints procedure actually result in any change? Will procedures be put in place that stop these errors happening to others and affecting other in the way it has me?

I doubt it.

They are answerable to nobody, other than themselves.