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Hello,
My daughter has been at college on a two years child, care course finishing on 22nd of June this year , The first year was at National Certificate Level, progresssing to HNC in the second year. I researched the DWP website and found that I was not required to pay maintainance for the second year as it was advanced education.
I have been paying monthly installments over the last 2 years but because my wife was keeping me in the dark I only found out in February 2013 about the qualification of the college course my daughter was doing and I immediately informed the CSA.
Having received no feedback i again contacted them last Wendesday. It was stated to me that I should not have been paying and was intimated at this point that I would receive a full refund in a lump sum from the date when the HNC part of my daughter's course started.
Today, I received a call informing me that I can only receive back payment to when I frst informed them ,i.e. last Wednesday. Although, after serching my file they have found notification of my intimation in February and the case handler stated that I could "probably" be back dated to February.
The case handler stated that they would not be able to fully reimburse me for the ten months of payments that I have made. I stand to loose approximately £2.750. His attitude is that I will just need to write this off.
Can you please advise me if there is a possibility of claiming this back. Have the CSA ever been prosecuted successfully in court? Is there an independent appeals prodedure?.
Technically, I believe that the CSA are correct in that they only calculate from the day when they receive updated information. However, (from the CSA's own book) that either parent should tell the CSA is there is any information which they use to work out child maintenance.
I would go and see your MP as soon as possible and ask him/her to raise a complaint with the CSA. It may also be worth looking at taking the CSA to court through the fast track procedure (what is commonly called the small claims court) - there will be a small fee for starting the procedure, but it's probably worth taking the risk - at the very least, you could write to the CSA telling them that if you don't get a satisfactory settlement within 28 days (I think 14 days is probably to short for the CSA), then you will be taking them to court.
However, I would see your MP first anyway.
Hi Stevie-F
Thank you your post. I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. You have mentioned that you had a case with the Child Support Agency (CSA). However, you have found out that your daughter is doing advance education and informed the CSA of the present circumstances. You would like to know if you could appeal against their decision of not reimbursing you for the ten months you already paid for.
In regards to where you stand on your current situation you may wish to look at this link https://www.gov.uk/complain-child-support-agency to see if there is any further advice or guidance you can receive. If you would like information about how to appeal to against the CSA decision, you may wish to look at this link https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance/appeal-a-decision.
I hope this helps.
William
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