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Who do the CSA answer to?
The CSA appear to be completely untouchable and beyond reproach.
They take whatever wages they like via a DEO even illegally making absent parents’ lives a misery, often forcing them to quit there jobs or even commit suicide. They blatantly lie to you when you phone them telling you it will take 12 weeks to sort their mistakes out which is what they have been telling me for three and a half years despite acknowledging and agreeing I have been over-paying.
So, who exactly do the CSA answer to and who do you really need to speak to actually make things happen?
13 thoughts on “Who do the CSA answer to?”
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Yes David your spot on with what you say. They’re very good at taking people’s money, but woeful at reimbursing people when making mistakes.
There is a long drawn out complaints process, which perhaps someone else on here can advise. However initially send a recorded letter marked complaints to them and get your MP involved.
As brett said, it is a long and laborious complaints system. In my experience, I have been through every complaint process with this lot, and i was fool enough to think that i was getting somewhere, when they stitched me up with £6,400 of arrears because of their mistakes……probably made up arrears!
Parliament has enshrined and protected this ‘not fit for purpose’ shambles with teflon. My complaint went to the Ombudsmans office, where the CSA, my M.P. and the Ombudsman closed ranks to whitewash my complaint, even though I had sufficient evidence for prolonged maladministration.
It’s a closed shop of compliancy, that Al capone would have been proud of!
I hoping that one day the Serious Fraud Office, investigate and find evidence of Serious fraud and in doing so arrest Executives and staff, as I would love to see them criminalised, as they are criminalising decent honest parents!
What happens between parents regarding children, has nothing to do with politicians and civil servants!
Totally agree with Brett and John.
They just don’t answer to anyone and are truly above the law. I do not know why they are so protected and why everything is in favour of the pwc.
Complaint letters and not giving up is the only way. Get your MP involved – it helped us in that we had a contact but really that was it.
Have you wrote a formal complaint to Noel Shanahan, who heads this disaster?
Thanks guys for your replies.
I spent years trying to make head way with these blatant liars. Did the recorded delivery complaints letter. They acknowledged receipt but I got no reply. The local MP has agreed to intervene but doubt if it will make any difference.
A CSA line manager has admitted that I have been over-paying for the past 3 1/2 years and promised me he would sort it……..still waiting!
Despite over-paying they have pulled the usual stunt of claiming I have arrears. This is something they seem to do periodically but when asked, they cannot explain how these arrears have accumulated particularly in my case where they concur I have been paying too much, but still, it makes absolutely no difference and still they are illegally taking everything my family and I have to live on via a deduction from earnings order.
I have bought a digital recording device to record future conversations with the CSA and intend to send it to my MP and the complaints department. Has anybody tried and tested this method in order to challenge them or does this make no difference either?
If I don’t get anywhere soon I will be forced to resign from my job and live in a council house and claim benefits and nobody will get jack shit from me.
Is this really what the CSA’s objectives are? If so they are doing a great job!!!
Dave I totally share your frustrations. CSA have acknowledged that the amount they are taking from my partner leaves us in “financial hardship” but do they do anything further, no!!
Situation we are in is the best case scenario is we separate, I then claim benefits as a single parent and if I did I would get more in tax credits than what my partner brings home. Because he is on a low salary he would also get tc. My son who is to attend college in September would get full bursary.
I have no objection with maintenance but the CSA system is a total disgrace that people are left with ridiculous options like giving up work, families separating – it’s ludicrous all because they number crunch and think people can afford it.
Hi Carol.
Nobody should be forced to give up work or separate. Fundamentally and morally that is wrong and is a prime example that the CSA basically could not care less what they are doing to people’s lives.
They are not incompetent. No organisation can be that incompetent for so long so what it actually bores down to is they are fully aware that they are untouchable and probably have the backing of the Government to “Carry on the good work”. The question is, with there being so many people that are so dissatisfied with the CSA, what can we do collectively to challenge them?
We can all sign the petition to abolish the CSA but who and what will replace it?
The same bastards who are managing it now but under a different title that’s who!
If anybody else took money they were not supposed to directly from a personal bank account it would be classified as a criminal offence. So how can the CSA be above the law?
Anybody clued up on how to tackle them legally?
The CSA are accountable to nobody , they are above the law and hide behind drachonian legislation . i have paid £5000 in so called arrears that accumalated due to them taking 26 months to complete a review . yes i was paying my maintenance at the assessed amount prior to review , they even lied to my MP that id never paid prior to the review , he was shocked when i provided the account breakdown detailing my payments ( provided by the CSA to me ) personally Iain Duncan Smith , steven geraghty and Mary Quin should be brought and held to account for the shambolic failings of this organisation , meanwhile when i paid back these arrears i was expected to feed and supprt my family on £37 per week . the clock is ticking and it will all come out one day about this shambolic agency
My self-employed ex husband is a multi-millionaire; just bought a nice 300,000k house and pays himself minimum wage required to secure his state pension. He pays himself what he likes out of his share profit, paying only 10% tax and no national insurance and seemingly I owe the secretary of state 6k. The ‘system’s’ made me ill and left my chlidren without – this country’s a disgrace
I have come onto this forum to seek some advice on claiming back money that theu inadvertantly informed me off by letter. I have opwrked inthe public sector for years and understand the bureacratic tricks used to dely and stall people in the hope that they will give up.
You are all right! Because the CSA was set up to tackle errant fathers it has been given a cloak to protect it from criticsm.
I am going to push my case all they way! I’m not going to give up at any point. I am writing to the Senior Resolutions Manager, Area Director and Chief Executive iin my latest letter. I will escalatre to MP if needed and have told them that I will take legal action and charge any costs to them. From what I have sen on these forums I looked up how you petition the House of Commons to do something. Even this is a smoke and mirrors game as they allow many petitioners but each has a different slant on the deficiencies of the service. There need to be a Single petition where everyone can get on board as a starting point.
Part of thier success in deflecting criticsm is because they deal with individual cases and have the power to make things more difficult. There are mothers and fathers on different sides of the CSA being shafted.
I have just set up ‘a Single Petition: Review & Scrutiny of the CSA’ @ http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/search?q=Child+Support
Please sign up
The CSA are answerable to nobody it seems, this country has gone to the dogs, If in doubt with these corrpt idiots always get your mp on side, they seem to have a bit of clout, dont take things lying down, fight to the end, otherwise yet again they have failed somebody else, the CSA are a disgrace!!!!!!
I sympaphise with nrp’s and pwc’s, I do believe there should be a system in place for payments to children but one that is accountable for its actions. I’m a nrp who is also fighting this corrupt government agency with a familiar story of alleged arrears which I know I do not owe as I have always paid the required amounts. From my experience I can only advise nrp’s and pwc is to fight them all the way. Every person on this planet and especially a democracy like our country is supposed to be, has a human right to an effective remedy. I eventually aim to take my case to the European Court of Human Rights once I have been through the csa and its complaints process if I haven’t received an effective remedy during this process. If I do manage to take my case with my evidence to the ECHR the British government will be made to look completely incompetent with this government agency and its surrounding fraud and corruption. The reason being that the British government said that with our jucicial system and its complaints procedures British citizens did not need a right to an effective remedy (article 13). With the British government being an instigator of the ECHR I should imagine it would be very embarressing for our government. Hopefully at this point it would generate media interest.
From my experience send every letter by recorded delivery.
Get your data protection files. When they arrive no matter how daunting they seem familiarise yourself with them and look for discrepencies.
Question the csa by letter with a copy of the data protection file or files.of any found discrepencies.
When things get uncomfortable for them they will transfer your complaint to a different department. If they do not reply write to Jim Edwards the client service director. With every letter that they reply you will find further lies and uncover further failings by them. If you know you are right about a certain point do not accept their explanation as we all know they do tell lies.
Do not let things rest or give up, FIGHT THEM ALL THE WAY WHICH WE HAVE ALL COLLECTIVELY GOT TO DO. I believe this is the only way to get the law makers to listen.
First time on this forum. Having the same difficulties. In the process of writing the longest letter to the csa ever. My case was closed in September 2011 as my son turned 18 and they confirmed this yet due to the fact that they are not taking on any more cases, they have taken the option to back track and look at old files and found supposedly that I still have an outstanding debt from four years ago which I am disputing. Needless to say they have ignored this and have now threatened legal action and/or deductions from earnings order – which I cannot pay. I am now writing to Jim Edwards, Local MP, CEO of the CSA, Independent Case Examiner and Iain Duncan Smith – Minister for Work & Pensions. Lets see what happens but I’m sure that the lies will continue as well as the threats.
Don’t give up and keep a timeline or diary of all conversations and actions (or not!) & get your MP on board. Keep following up with your MP by email or letters. Keep it professional & factual. Just keep on the case regardless of how frustrating & stressful it is. This is currently my position. I believe that the quality of employees is extremely bad and communication and coordination between the departments is non existent. Go to the press if necessary and start a petition for new management. And remember David Cameron is up for reelection soon and bad publicity will harm his campaign so take action now. Have a steely resolve & dogged determination – don’t let incompetence win!!!! It’s about time the government took action against these organisations that are meant to serve & help us, the people that pay a fortune in taxes!!!!