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Where do I complain about the CSA?
Where, or how, do I make a compaint about the ridiculous organisation that is the CSA.
I am a Father of 2 who for over 6 years have paid my ex-wife via the CSA every month, until last May when my daughter moved in with me, followed by my son in November. Since then I have tried without success to get maintainence payments from my ex, so far I have been given a catalogue of ‘sorry’s’ and an equally long line of ‘the person you dealt with last hasn’t done it’. 1 year on and I am still dancing round in circles trying to get the CSA to collect, and pass on payments towards the upbringing of my children, from their morally devoid mother.
Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
10 thoughts on “Where do I complain about the CSA?”
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NOW! Start the process NOW! The csa rely on arbitary time limits that they dont make you fully aware of to ‘stitch you up’. First dont ever deal with them by phone, put everything in writing and insist on written responses. Second, send all letters recorded delivery, keep copies and keep the receipts of postage in case they claim not to have received them. (another favourite of theirs) Third, get a copy of your Data Protection Prints, ask for evrything including computer records etc, you will be surprised how much info there is about you. (cost £10) Fourth, start the internal complaints process, if that fails take it to the ‘Independent’ Case Examiner, if that fails you have the appeals tribunal. All of these – csa, ICE, Appeals tribunal are all part of the same orgnisation, the DWP so dont expect miracles and dont trust any of them. Fifth, copy your MP into everything and get him or her to complain on your behalf. If you look at so many posts on here you may be upset to see that in lots of cases the money collected does not get passed on to the child, the more cynical among us think the csa is a ‘ponzi’ scheme designed to collect stealth tax for the government. Good luck with your struggle and dont trust any of them. I would rather put my life in the hands of a devil worshipping satanist mass murderer than trust any of these people. Just remember the nazis were ‘just doing their job’ as well!
RT @CSAHell: Where do I complain about the CSA?: Where, or how, do I make a compaint about the ridiculous organisatio… http://t.co/4Ed …
Get your MP involved as J says. Once they are involved you will be assigned a Parliamentary Correspondence Officer within the CSA. YOu’ll have one contact which does make things easier. Write a formal letter of complaint and ask why nothing has been done.
It’s quite normal that they say that when you call. We kept getting promised calls back which never happened. Once someone was dealing with it, next time you’d call for an update, the file was passed to someone else. No wonder they never get anything right!
Good luck
And J’s right they lie and are not to be trusted. My partner’s file had correspondence sent to our current address, 2 years before we moved here!!
Bit difficult to work out your time line, last May was that 2011 or 2012?
When was your previous case closed?
When did you make your application?
Which dates did you start receiving child benefits?
to get a clearer view can I ask the following?
1. Was it May 2011 that your daughter moved in with you?
2. Did you get Child Benefit paid to you – of so what date?
3. Did you make application (this could have been by phone or by completing a MAF- Maintenance Application Form)
4. Was it November 2011 that your son moved in with you ?
5 – same as question no 2
6. same as question no 3
Hi All,
Thanks for all the advice, I’ll get a letter to my MP tomorrow.
To be clear;
My Daughter moved in with me May 2011
My Son in November 2011
I stopped paying my ex in May, and spoke to her about maintainence for the first time in Dec and she avoided giving me an answer.
I found out that I could claim child benefit and did so in Feb 2012
It took CSA until September to supposedly close my old case (although the woman I spoke to today asked me how I make payments which looks to me as if its not really closed)(I told her I don’t and she quickly opened the right case)
They have told me that they can only back date my claim to September this year as that’s when they told my ex that there was a claim against her despite the fact that she has paid nothing towards the children’s upkeep in a year.
Hello
You may get better advice from Alice who blogs on here but just in case please take a look (or get a csa specialist lawyer to check) the rule in Kerr [2004]. My case is ‘old rules’ but as its (the rule in Kerr) case law it should still apply. The csa constantly go on about ‘the onus is on you’ to provide info but the rule in Kerr states that the csa are under an obligation to act on information they get from another government department. So if the csa (DWP) get info from the child benefit claim (DWP) they should instgate a supersession of their own motion as there is clear evidence of a change of circumstances.
Its a small point but it should (shouldnt it) mean that they can backdate to when they knew about the change.
in order to claim Child Maintenance (CM) through the CSA you must be a Parent with Care (PWC) and in order to be a WPC you must be in receipt of Child Benefit (CB). As you are stating that you started receiving CB in Sept (was this Sept 2011 or 2012?) that is the date that you can be classed as a PWC from .
When a PWC requests a case to be opened they will be asked to name the Qualfying Child(ren) (QC/QCs) and give their date(s) of Birth – this will be used to confirm that CB is being paid to you for the child(ren) named in the application.
You will also be asked to provide as much information as possible on the Alledged Non-resident parent (ANRP) – the csa then have to attempt to contact the ANRP – initially they will attempt to do this by phone (3 calls over a 48 hour period at varying times of day – usually a morning, an afternoon and an evening call – if day 2 is a Saturday they will do a daytime call on the Saturday and this can be classed as an ‘evening’ call as it is outwith normal mon-fri 9-5 business hours).
If they make contact with the ANRP by phone on one of these calls they will advise that they have been named as the parent of the QC(s) and will be asked if they accept parentage of the child/children. If they accept parentage the effective date of the case is set as that day and they are then known as the non Resident Parent (NRP)
If however paternity is denied they will be offered a DNA test, if they accept the DNA test offer arrangements will be made for the testing – if the test proves them to be the parent the effective date is the date when the agency spoke to the ANRP and again they are then known as the NRP. If they are proved by DNA not to be the parent the case is closed and they will not be liable for the DNA test or any maintnenace. If the PWC refuses a DNA test on the child(ren) then the case will be closed.
If the agency are unable to contact the ANRP by phone they will send a Maintenance Enquiry Form (MEF) to the ANRP (they have ways of checking addresses so that they are sending to a confident address). The form will be accompanied by a covering letter naming the child(ren) etc and a date by which it should be completed and returned to the agency – the ANRP can complete the MEF and post it back or they can contact the Agency by phone and provide the information … again the paternity issue applies, the effective date will be the date the ANRP phones the agency or the date they return the form.
If the ANRP fails to return the form completed or contact the agency by phone by the ‘return by date’ on the covering letter then the agency can open the case with paternity presumed. the ANRP then becomes known as the NRP and effective date is set by the ‘reply by’ date on the letter.
If a PWC opens a case with 1 QC (ie your daughter) and at a later date a further child(ren) with the same ‘other’ parent moves into their household they must contact the agency and ask for the new child(ren) to be added to the case – the same procedure has to be gone through in respect of contacting the ANRP etc.
In respect to your old case – as CB would initially have been paid to your ex partner she would have been the PWC at the time – the case will be closed (or will require to be closed) back to the week that he CB claim ceased…. did she cancel her CB claim for each child in accordance with when they left her household or was it cancelled when you made your CB claim in Feb 2012? If you do not know this then ask the CSA to check when CB ceased being paid to her for each child. If it turns out that she continued to claim after each child left her household then this is benefit fraud and you would need to contact the CB office about this.
again just so that I can advise accurately confirm the following
1 have you specifically advised the CSA that you wish to open a claim – simply telling them that your child(ren) are living with you does not constitute a request to open a case and claim CM via CSA.
2. If yes to above – when ?
in respect to the call today with the agency when you were asked to how you make payments, the telephony system is linked to the database which holds the cases and are routed to the case officer/team/dept currently dealing with your case by your NI no which you are asked to enter into your telephone keypad – if you have been or currently are a PWC and NRP all cases linked to your Ni No will be linked in the data base and as the ‘default’ case will be the original case … so your file would have opened on the case where you were the NRP and as such the officer would normally perform the security check on that case, some officers have the good sense at the start of the call to ask which case you are calling about. Apologies that this was not done and it was wrongly assumed that the male voice on the other end belonged to an NRP.
To clarify whether your original case (with you being the NRP) is now closed – when a case is closed not the NRP and the PWC will be sent a closure letter confirming the case as being closed, they should also be sent a collection or payment schedule – if there are arrears on the case and thees are to be collected there will be dates and amounts on the schedule – if there are no arrears the dates and amounts will be blank or nil accordingly.
I would contact the agency again tomorrow and ask for confirmation that the case in which you are the NRP is closed – the fact that you are able to open a case (I presume naming both your children as QCs) would indicate that it has been … but best to check – you can also ask them to send copies of the closure letter and last collection schedule which you should keep safe.
Quote Heath Gunn on November 7th, 2012 9:27 pm ~ I found out that I could claim child benefit and did so in Feb 2012…
They have told me that they can only back date my claim to September this year as that’s when they told my ex that there was a claim against her despite the fact that she has paid nothing towards the children’s upkeep in a year.
If you consider the Agency has failed to provide an acceptable standard of service, you should follow their complaints procedure and request financial redress.
Send a clearly marked complaint to the CSA and copy in your local MP, requesting their assistance.
If you remain unhappy after the CSA’s final response you can proceed with your complaint to the Independent Case Examiner.
If you remain dissatisfied after ICE has dealt with your case, you can ask your MP to get the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to look at your complaint.
You should note, if you skip referring your complaint to ICE and go directly to the PHSO you will be unable to then have ICE deal with your complaint.
~ Keep copies of ALL correspondence you send and post signed for.
The link below will take you to the DWP Financial Redress for Maladministration guide.
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/financial-redress-for-maladministration.pdf
chall ~ afairercsaforall