I had been paying child maintenance for my son through a private agreement for about 10 years when he turned 18 I stopped the agreement unaware it was till he was 20 my ex went straight to CSA who set up payments based on the old scheme and told me I owed them £3500 this is the first I knew about it and when I questioned it they said I was informed by letter 10 years ago when private agreement was agreed (I didn't receive this letter)
He is now 20 please can someone advice me on the following I would appreciate it very much.
1) Can they chase me for this money I never knew about and they waited for 10 years to tell me about
2) As its the old policy I have been to nervous to ask for a re-evaluation incase it goes up as im in debt already they are unaware I have 2 other children living with me and I pay a mortgage. The reason I'm concerned is when I told them I pay out £875 a month in nursery fees for my little one to enable me to work they told me this was a "luxury"!!
3) If I have been overpaying can I claim this back or is it written off?
I would appreciate any advice or help as when I speak to the CSA I get nowhere.
Hi
I suspect that the answer is that they can chase you for the arrears - I suspect that your ex may have said at the time that you'd reached a private agreement, but probably didn't close the case, so these arrears suddenly appeared again when the case was re-activated. I assume you have been paying them for the last 2 years (between age 18 and 20) - they won't backdate a calculation based on information provided now (for instance, the reduction based on you having 2 dependant children) as, with the exception of information that was provided (or not) fraudently, they will only base the calculations on data from the date it is received. This means if you have been overpaying because you didn't provide the information, then I can't see that you would be able to claim back overpayments.