Will the CSA let me starve to death?

February 25, 2011

Well, it is now my 4 month of waiting for the re-assessment of my ex’s income to be done. There is no reason for the delay.. the wage slips and everything they need is sat there collecting dust.. I complained so bitterly they now refuse to take any phone calls and even refuse a representative to talk about my case?! WTF!!

I said in my complaints me and my son are going to starve to death considering once the calculation is done there will be £££’s of arrears, and its not like my ex wont pay either. he will, but understandably he wants to wait for the CSA to do the maths and send him the letter so it is all above board so to say and I can see it from my ex’s point of view – I wouldn’t just keep giving hundreds to my ex without correct paperwork..

However to this day my assessment still is not done, they spend hours on dealing with my complaints.. even had a ‘supervisor’ say she is referring my case to social services as she feels my child is at risk due to us having no food!!!! I did point out on my complaint if she did the assessment I would be able to eat..!!! So they would happily write me shit o grams saying I cannot call, happily waste time talking to social services, and responding to my complaints but REFUSE to do a 10 min calculation !!!!!

What the hell is wrong with them.. I have written to my MP – called the CAB.. got nowhere!!!

I am utterly outraged they will just allow someone to ‘starve’ to death over just doing the pissing calculation..

surely this must be against my human rights ??? They are here to protect the children from poverty – there statement makes my blood boil..

Comments

  • CookieMonster says:

    Hi Sarah

    The answer to your question “will the CSA let me starve to death?” is yes. The question I am asking you is are you prepared to let this happen?

    Unless your case with the CSA is mandatory I cannot for one second understand your complaint, you state your ex is wiling to make the payments so why not between you take some responsibility as parents and come to an agreement between yourselves.

    Your post makes very disturbing reading, yes the CSA are failing but as a parent you are ultimately responsible and should not be risking your son’s wellbeing on a system that is well known for its failings. Please get on the phone to your ex and come to a mutually agreeable amount of maintenance and stop this poverty yourselves.

  • GoodParent says:

    Well Sarah, what can i say that CookieMonster hasn’t already said, I have 4 children and manage to feed them just fine without any other help and if your ex is willing to pay then set up an arrangement right now between yourselves, if your ex sets up a standing order thats proof enough that he is paying, the CSA will not provide a good service nor any “Proper Paperwork” as you put it. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and take action to resolve your situation… I have to quote you here….*** “surely this must be against my human rights ??? They are here to protect the children from poverty – there statement makes my blood boil..”***
    The first line of defence between your child and poverty is YOU and YOUR EX the childs Mother and Father not the CSA. If you and your child starve to death then blame yourself as no one in this world is here to give people an easy free ride, life is tough and you have to work hard at it especially when you have kids so toughen up and get smart. You make my blood boil and the blood of every other hard working parent, I’ve never heard so much rubbish in all my life. PS if you were really going to starve to death you would have by now no one can live 4 months without food stop inflating the truth to get sympathy and get on the phone to your ex today and take control of your life.

  • sarah says:

    of course he wont starve to death – I am merely trying to example the utter shambles that is a system built to ‘get children out of poverty’

    This is pure evidence to the spiteful ignorant staff who couldn’t care less about a welfare of a child.. I wrote this as a good example of how time wasting actions and how they go against there own reason for existence!!!

    They will happily waste hours on end dealing with complaints, going against their own procedures (aka 12 weeks to assess an income) and waste countless hours talking to social services when the answer to the problem is to do the f-ing calculation… this is pure and utter madness…

    These are very well paid civil servants who us tax payers pay for creating ‘poverty for children’ not the other way around.

    With regards to setting up a private agreement. this is not possible and as I stated he will pay until the official paperwork has been sent to how much he owes me which is fair enough .. he has every right to wait until the assessment is done..

  • CookieMonster says:

    Just a thought but why not take the initiative and go onto the CSA website, use the online calculator and work out the payments then between yourself and your ex to make sure your son is not put into poverty.

    I agree with you that the CSA do not handle cases in the best possible way but I’m guessing this is due to understaffing much the same as any other government agency, maybe if more parents took responsibility for maintenance themselves rather that using the CSA they wouldn’t be overstretched and would be able to offer the service they intend.

  • rach says:

    sarah the csa is not about child poverty it WAS about making money for the government by recouperating the pwc benefit money back from the nrp, since there is now a total benefit disregard they have no incentive to help anyone, cancel your claim then set up a private arrangement between yourself and the childs father it honestly is the best way

  • sarah says:

    Yeah I agree – this is purely an example of the utter shambles of the CSA – please do not think my child is going to starve to death – he and me are fine.

    I do work, currently on maternity leave..

    My ex was in prison and I am NO WAY going to be in contact with him – he will pay but wants to wait for the CSA to do the assessment.. so I am stuck between a hard place and a rock!! lol..

    If you look at any other ‘benefit’ or ‘income’ you have claimed for, all would be done in a timely manner with courteous staff who ACTUALLY care.. I approached the CSA to prove if I said my child is in poverty – they wont do anything about it any way!!!! Because of my complaints – I got banned from calling them as they didnt want to hear the ugly truth anymore..

    Any other orginsation in the world would help a child in need – the CSA seemingly get worse the more you complain.. the staff love to be rude and unhelpful.. they utterly love it!!

  • rach says:

    sarah this is why the csa should go! they are accountable for nobody, your ex must be a total fool wanting to go through the csa, if he could read some of the horror stories on this website he would soon change his mind and be desperate for a private arrangement! unless hes hoping that they will just forget about you and not process your claim! . all you can do is either complain to ICE or close your claim and wait for this new body to come into force next year but even then they will be encouraging everybody to have a private arrangement. I wish you best of luck!!

  • John says:

    It’s a complete shambles and has no place whatsoever in our society!

  • Jill says:

    Your a money grabbing pwc. u still get child benefit,child tax credit,doubt u will starve.

  • trish says:

    they will let u starve…i ate toast 4 weeks and months 4 years…..i made sure my girls had food. i am 46 and weigh just over 7 stone am now admitting i have a problem….not my fault but i gave my kids everything……and with the lies he has a business …csa and my ex is sending me to an early grave…but i still will continue to fight….was size 8 in 1996….now size 6

  • Dave says:

    The CSA are worse than useless! I have been paying maintenance for two years yet they have now sent me notification that they are taking me to court for non payment! Really?? Maybe this is because the CSA do not have a clue what is going on, each and every time I call them I have to speak to 3 or 4 different departments (all in different areas of the country) only to be passed back to the first department.

    I would love to know how they have been allowed to continue as a profitable organisation for so long…. Yes they do make money from what a NRP pays!!

  • nrp says:

    just to add, im a nrp (dad) always paid for my son for 7 years, without fail, even through losing a home still paid, then lost my job and within 2 months my ex was saying how does it feel that another man is paying for your son, i found out recently that she doesnt have sky tv anymore, i really dont mind the cash not all going on my son, he needs hot water for a bath etc, but i was paying for sky tv!!! anyway it was me who went to the csa due to the threats made by ex, within 3 weeks it was sorted but due to me not having a job my ex stopped me seeing my own son for 7 months, it went to court and low and behold she got told to grow up and contact was started again, i have never not wanted to pay maintantence, i went to the csa myself i wasent chased or dodged them, i think a point missed alot about all this is the csa should take into account the nrp outgoings, i really believe this is a major reason why alot choose to run and not pay, im not saying thats right but its a possible factor, i worked it out if i hadnt lost my job, i would have been paying 450 a month, in other words i may have had to leave the job, after the 450 would have been taken what was left didnt cover my mortgage, running of a car, bills, presents at xmas, and to be honest i dont think a child of that age needs 450 a month its an ammount that keeps some women having babies just for the payments, dont slate me for this statement either its true i know women who do this, its not 100% the csa,s fault they were good to me but i did make the claim so that could be different and im working part time hours now, but the ammount hasent changed, i did hear from the csa that my ex had called them and complained that the money was a disgrace but i think it must be hard to lose free sky,,,,, women, sat on a gold mine some of them

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