The CSA told me employers don’t have to pay their DEO orders
February 28, 2013
After 14 years of intermittent payments calculated on the CSA maintenance direct scheme (CSA work out how much NRP should pay and then gives it direct to RP) I worked out my ex was about £500 in arrears for the previous year and over the 14 years approx. £1500 with the missed months here and there when he was a bit skint!
As my son turned 18 I penned a letter asking for the £500 arrears for the previous year and if he paid those in full I would not pursue the other £1000. I explained that as I was unable to go through the family courts to get my sons arrears because we were going through CSA and the CSA were unwilling to pursue these arrears that in my eyes he owed a debt to his son and I was going to fill out the paperwork for the small claims court to recover the debt in the name of his son.
I had phoned many solicitors who were not sure what the outcome of going to small claims court would be or if I would even be heard. Equally my ex also could not find a solicitor that could clarify if they would make him pay or not.
I gave him 28 days in which to pay or I would file the papers at a cost of around £60 at the local magistrates court. As the NRP lives out of town, I told him I would be applying for the case to be heard at the local court, as his son is disabled and I need to be near home in case of an emergency. I knew this would be an inconvenience to him.
My understanding of a small claims court is to be heard who is in the wrong and a legal judgement made which can be enforced. I must have worried him so much that he paid the £500, I almost wish he hadn’t and that I had taken it to the small claims court because I would be interested to know if it would have been heard and I could have actually got all the debt he owed his son of £1500 Even attachment of earnings is not working that we now are on as I am told by tonight’s “advisor” if the employer does not pay then CSA can’t enforce this….or am I dealing with yet another CSA employee who has no idea what they are talking about!!!??
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The employee was correct the CSA can not enforce payments from an employer,it is not they who owe the money it is the NRP who they can pursue.
However the employer can be prosecuted for failure to implement a DEO.
Another misleading title.
Employers are required by law to implement deductions from earnings for the CSA or be subject to prosecution.
Hi Michelle – can I just be clear on what this post is about?
You are threatening your ex with legal action for an amount you ‘think’ he owes? He (based on what you have said) has paid you for 14 years and you are disputing £1500??
I note that is no mention of neglect from your ex to your son so assume he was a decent Dad? that he spent time with him etc?
The point I am making is that, don’t you think that you should invest all that energy elsewhere and maybe get a job??
At the moment I use “maintenance direct” and there is no fixed amount and that is agreed from both sides. My understanding is that it’s irrelevant what your ex “thinks” you should be paying as it doesn’t use the normal calculation methods. It sounds like you ex has done the sensible thing and paid you £500 to go away. I would have done the same but I think you would have lost as there’s no legal basis for your calculations, if you applied your logic to any other situation it would be called theft.
Just to clarify…Sally
I do work and claim no benefits for myself, my ex partner for 6 years paid maintainance and regularly saw his disabled son. Since dating and marrying his new girlfriend/wife 8 years ago she has insisted he stop all contact with his family. This I only summise as there was no issue for the previous years and girlfriend.
I didn’t want to bore people with the background of it all and tried to keep my original post brief.
CSA have always been involved over the years and instructed my ex the amount he should be paying monthly, this has been sporadic with more than a few months missed here and there totalling £1500.
I was just trying to let people on the forum here know that threatening to take my ex to small claims court enabled me to get out of him some of the debt that he owed my son for maintainance and it may work for others.
After seeing that Sally comments on here regularly to incite people I suggest that it is she that seems to have far too much time on her hands and nothing better to do.
The evidence I would have submitted at a small claims court would have been all the assesments I have from CSA over the past 14 years stating what my ex should have been paying and how often, alongside the bank statements for amounts he has paid and when he has missed payments.
CSA did call last week with their new financial assesment as my ex has recently had a new baby and told me they were going to take what they calculate his arrears to be at the moment ,because they can’t add up, of £680 over the next two months. I suggested that he would be unlikely be able to afford this as they had a new baby in the house and that I would be quite happy for the arrears to be taken over the next two years. So don’t put all of us parents with care in the ‘bitter and twisted’ category as some of us can reasonable!!
If I work to pay and support my son then his father should have to share the responsibility too.
I take it from the posts that you are now no longer on maintenance direct but are using the agency to collect your maintenance – if this is the case and the NRP does not pay or misses payments the agency can/will issue a deo to his employer – if the employer does not impose the deo then legal action can be taken against them for failing to implement this. An employer can face fines of up to £500 per missed payment.
Alice do the CSA have to prove the liability? PWC in reciept of Child support and living with them? or just attach the order willy nilly.
not entirely sure what you are asking here Stuart – what do you mean by the csa proving liability?
I am asking do the CSA not have to run checks that the PWC and CSA are entitled to take this money? or do they just accept the PWC word and remove money at source without supplying any proof to the NRP?
Quite a simple question really?
but dont expect an answer as you tend not to comment on points were CSA break the law
I can answer that one Stuart… The answer is yes… The CSA do make changes and issue DEOs WITHOUT ANY proof… My partner was ‘reassessed’ 3 times and ended up with ‘arrears’ because th PWC lied to the CSA… He was not contacted ANY time before the alterations were made, and neither he or his ex were asked to prove anything, his work was not contacted to chech the PWC information… The CSA just took the word of a Lying, PWC…
Alice may tell you that ‘procedurally’ this should not happen, but in reality it did and here are thousands like us….
Sally,
have to agree the CSA failed to check that child benefit was paid or the child lived with her, Yet used a DEO to collect for 2 years and will now not pay this back and have covered up her fraud.
Alice is not entirely sure what we are saying here, and ignores the law to suit and blames it for her actions and comments, not a very good state of affairs really.
The CSA keeps making NRP’s prove their innocence not the legal way around.
Oh and Sally, if you have the misfortune of going to the ICE, they ignore it too, instead they rely only on the information the CSA put forward, Yes thats right they use information that has not been mentioned in a 3 year investigation, The CSA do not have to inform you, they just have to say they did. British justice at it’s brilliant best, The case examiner uses the mission statement judging without taking sides, However it is clear this is as true as his independence is, Its all a DWP rip off i am afraid.
“Sally” and Stuart- You decide to have children= you contribute to their living expenses regardless of your relationship breaking down! So many of you moaning about paying money to your ex?? You are paying money towards the upbringing of the children you had TOGETHER with your ex! This is about your children NOT your ex and how much you hate them.
Acting clueless about how costly it is to raise children is just playing ignorant (food, clothing, school trips, holidays, phones, toys, pocket money, uniform… endless list). I’m sure if you agreed to contributing willingly through direct debit for e.g, had that agreement put down in writing, you made a fair contribution and were consistent in your payments- the CSA WOULD NOT HAVE TO BE INVOLVED.