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Hi all, apologies if this has all been said before by others and 2nd apologies if i ramble.......here goes.
In 2006 my wife and I split after it was discovered she had been having an affair, i left the marital home to set up again on my own, only to shortly after meet a fantastic lady who is now my current partner.
My daughter (then 4) moved in with me as it was decided by her mum that was best, s she moved in and stayed with us for 6 years all happy, her mum had very little contact (her choice) and I received £2.50 per week child maintenance through the CSA as her mum claimed she was not working, I knew different and even gave the proof to the CSA however they did nothing.
In late 2012 my daughter wanted to rekindle the contact with her mum so contact was made and regular contact started, the CSA still on paying £2.50 per week, after a while my daughter decided she wanted to live with her mum, so after many discussions she did move in with her mum and we had contact, irregular on her part (daughter) but there was contact, the CSA payments to me stopped.
A year later I get a letter from the CSA asking all the usual as my ex was now claiming from me, much to my surprise, the name of my daughter on the form was wrong so I wrote back and explained this, I was informed that my daughters name had been changed by deed poll, and there is nothing I can do as I don't have parental responsibility, this was last August, I have changed job since then and when i contacted the CSA they said "sorry cant discus your case as there is a technical problem" this went on from October to January this year. I then get a letter stating I have to pay £69 per week from last year!!!! i contacted the CSA to advise that they had calculated wrong (on my salary from last job ) they have now said that I need to pay £60 from January 2nd 2014 and to start putting the money away as the finance team would contact me to arrange the payments etc.
The finance department contact me Friday by accident, they called my employer to speak to payroll to initiate a payment from source even though they had not spoken with me, needless to say i spoke to the lady from CSA, I was then advised that i had £1500 of arrears and that I needed to pay £90 per week on top of the £60 so a total of £150 and when i asked for reasons the lady got very rude and patronising needless to say the conversation ended.
In addition to the above my ex has nearly £250 of arrears owed to me, surprisingly enough no one from the CSA wants to discuss this even thought the correct thing to do in my eyes would be take that from what i "owe"
my questions are,
1. Can they take this much each week
2. Is it true they should calculate over 2 years to repay the arrears NOT 16 weeks as is the case at the mo.
3. What legal rights do I have, at the moment it appears I have less than a rapist.
Apologies for the rambling and any spelling errors, any help, advice would be great.
Thank you
So the reason payments were not set up from when they first contacted you until now was 'there was a technical problem'?
And now they are saying payments will start from January 2014 with arrears added from last August, is that correct ?
You need to find out the exact reason why you have accrued arrears from August-January..why have they taken so long to set up the application
And why are they going to take payments straight from your wages? Without you being given the chance to pay by direct debit
When you know the reasons why they have taken so long, post on here again please, in the meantime I will try and find the relevant section on arrears
Hi Huxley,
When they first contacted me in August the paperwork they sent did not have my daughters birth name (surname) so I questioned it, I was then informed that my daughters name had been changed by deed poll, i further queried this as I had not signed any consent for this only to be told I did not have PR and did not need to give my consent and furthermore this had nothing to do with the CSA, this took a period of nearly 2 months to sort out, I then sent the paperwork back as advised by solicitor.
I then left my job at beginning of October, i tried to contact CSA to advise and was told that there was a technical issue so could not discuss, this was the same for1 more attempt to contact in October, 2 in November and 2 in December, they finally contacted me in January, apx 2 weeks ago, re-assessed and told me to wait to hear from the finance department, this was the contact last Friday telling me that I had over £1500 arrears and to pay at £90 per week on top of my £60. The lady on the phone was very abrubt and refused to give me any info, I have stressed that I am not refusing to pay only that I would like a proper breakdown sent to me in writing etc.
The contact Friday was when the called my employer to arrange the payments, I work in a small company so answered the phone etc, bit of luck really.....
I am going to contact them again tomorrow to arrange my usual £60 per week payment starting Friday, doing this via standing order not direct debit.
In addition to them not giving me the calcs etc they will not take into account the arrears that the ex owes can this be correct.
Sorry rambling again lol.......so far not much sleep had over the last two days because of this
I can imagine you've not had much sleep
I do think maintenance would still be due from the first contact in August, even though you were querying the surname which delayed things. Did they give you the figure that needed to be paid when they contacted you? Or was it just the initial maintenance enquiry form for you to fill in?
Depending on what the technical problem was will determine when the arrears will need to be paid
Well what a difference a couple of days make........
Spoke with CSA at 9 this morning, they have admitted they were wrong and that the arrears can be paid over a maximum period of 2 years which to my delight means that instead of needing to pay £150 per week(£60 normal payment and £90 for arrears) i only need pay £15 on top of the £60 woop woop.
In addition they have also admitted that I may not have to pay arrears as I was only advised of what I needed to pay on 2nd Jan this year some 4 months after they had all the required paperwork, they are looking into it and sending me the paperwork that shows the calculations etc.
And good bit number 3.......they have finally agreed to look into the arrears that my ex owes and will take that off the arrears I have if there are any.
All in all a good phone call which means my daughter will get what she needs sooner..........if only the ex would have accepted what was offered 18months ago this would never have happened.
My only advice to others in the same boat is, stay calm, do your homework but most of all talk to others about it dont bottle it up and run away from it...
Excellent, glad you've gt it sorted without having to go through the complaints procedure.
I agree if you don't think the CSA are right, then follow it up, I did and am paying £200 plus less a month than I would have been if I hadn't followed through their mistake
Some other poor sod maybe wouldn't have bothered and would have been over paying without realising
I would not mind but when the shoe was on the other foot they did not want to know, my ex was blatantly working but claimed she was not, even when I gave them all the details they did nout, but hey I guess thats what we get for having goolies.
I would not mind but when the shoe was on the other foot they did not want to know, my ex was blatantly working but claimed she was not, even when I gave them all the details they did nout, but hey I guess thats what we get for having goolies.
I think it depends on who you speak to, at the end of the day there job is to try and get maintenance in place
I agree some of the people that work there are so rude, but the last lady I spoke to was very good and actually did something which I can't say on here :whistle: but my assessment would have been more a week if she changed it, but she turned a blind eye
Maybe her boyfriend or husband is also a NRP too other kids and she understands 🙂
I've spoken to some very good people at CSA in the past - I'm the PWC and the CSA were not impressed by the tricks my ex was up to to avoid paying any maintenance at all, but it was clear that whatever side I was on, they simply wanted things done right. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people being shuffled around not long after and it was harder to get continuity, but I hope those good people are still there somewhere.
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