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Hi, i have just found this website and thought someone may be able to give me some advice. CSA contacted me about a month ago asking for £8000 in arrears plus £179 a month for current maintenance. When i looked at the claim date it was 01/10/2009 which means its taken them nearly 4 years to contact me. I explained to them on the phone that my ex would not let me see the child and repeatedly refused to take any money off me claiming she didn't want anything off me and never wanted to hear from me again. This made no difference to the CSA so i sent them a letter explaining i don't have £8000 and asking them why there has been an almost 4 year delay. 2 weeks after they received the letter i still don't have any reply. I phoned them today and asked when i could expect a letter back, the woman i spoke to just avoided the question and kept telling me i need to pay the full amount immediately or they will take £450 a month from my employer. I was wondering if there was anything i can do about it? if they take that amount i will be left without money to pay rent and bills and will ultimately lead to me becoming homeless and loosing my job as a support worker. Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give me. here is the letter that i sent the csa. i have edited out the last names and address.
I am writing in response to a letter I received from you on 27/06/13. The letter informed me that madelyn has made a claim for the child maintenance of Leah. The claim start date is listed as 01/10/2009, and yet the first and only correspondence I have received from you is dated 27/06/13.
Unfortunately because of the near 4 year delay in you contacting me, I am now in £7605 of arrears. I simply can’t understand why it has taken the CSA this amount of time to contact me. I have always been willing to pay child maintenance and my only reason for not doing so is that in 2009 Madelyn refused to let me see Leah and also refused to take any maintenance payments from me.
I have written to Madelyn and stated that I am more than happy to pay the recommended £39 a week, however I regret anything beyond this I simply can’t afford. I do not have £7605 nor do I earn enough to be able to re-pay the amount in a sufficient time scale.
On contacting the CSA by phone on 29/06/13, I was informed the minimum payment will be £380-£450 a month in order to clear the arrears and pay regular maintenance while doing so. This is based on repayment over 3 years.
As I’m sure you appreciate, I would not be able to live on the remainder of my wages. I would be left without a car, without a home and without a job, in which case I would be subject to pay a flat rate of either £0 or £5 a week. This would not be an ideal situation for anyone involved, including my daughter Leah. As the organisations name suggests, your aim is to support children, which clearly cannot happen on either of those amounts.
I would appreciate if you could review the case, and respond to me in writing clearly stating your reasons for the 3 years and 8 months delay in contacting me. Due to this delay I am now in an unmanageable amount of financial trouble. Any proposals from yourselves in how to solve this issue effectively for all parties involved would be appreciated.
Yours sincerely
Christopher Blake
Hi Christopher
Unfortunately, the CSA do have powers to do what they intend. However, 4 years is a ridiculous amount of time. Go and see your MP as a matter of urgency, taking all of your paperwork with you (copies so you can leave it with him) - an MP can raise a complaint with the CSA which has a much higher priority than the public can do, so they can't avoid answering this. It is worth having a reasonable repayment plan to reduce the arrears which you can give to the MP also.
Ok thanks for the advice I will arrange to see the mp and go from there
Hi and welcome
You could also be liable for any interest and perhaps you need to argue that if they had been on the ball then there wouldn't have been a delay and therefore you would have needed to pay it!
Good luck with it and let us know what happens as many of our dads on here are in similar situations
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