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Hi,
I'm new to this site and I'm looking for some help / advice. My CSA account was switched to the CMS about 18 months ago. It has been a nightmare from the start.
When the switch happened CSA refunded me money and said I had over paid, they never made it clear that my account had been moved to the CMS and the money should have gone to them, so I had now unpaid maintenance that I had paid, but was refunded and subseqeuntly spent.
I got in contact wit the CMS and my god, what a shock, at times I thought the CSA were bad, but the CMS are a utter joke, untrained, rude and incomptetent staff !!!!!!! (the ones I've dealt with)
They have been charging me a rate of a parent with only 1 child who lives with her "mum", whcih is fine but had no knowledge I had 2 other children who live with me, and I only found out that they were not aware after paying maintenance for a year on a incorrect rate and they have said the backdated payments will not be adjusted to reflect I have more then 1 dependant, how can this be?
They also seemed to have no idea that there is such a thing as paying reduced maintenance if you have a child with a disability that lives with you.
I have written to the CMS and made complaints and appeals all letters were sent recorded so I know they got them and in 18 months I've not had one reply to any appeals I've made.
Any ideas on how to get some answers, I just want to have this sorted and be paying a fare amount based on correct information. I'm thinking of writing to my MP.
Hi There,
I would go to your local MP and ask them for some help, we have had others who have done this, they have had different results some better than others, but hopefully you will at least get some answers
GTTS
The only advice I can give is check check and then double check everything that gets sent to you for mistakes. My time with the CMS has been riddled with mistakes, the people have no clue other than the numbers they see on the screen. I went from full time employment to Benefits, back to employment, and what a disater. All got sorted in the end though.
CMS are correct that they don't backdate to before they are advised of relevant information, regarding your other 2 children, but I presume that the CSA were aware of this, in which case I would have thought that they had the information, they just didn't account for it. I would do a subject access request (SAR) on all information held about your case - if you can find anything in their documentation to show they were informed, then I would say they can't ignore that.
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