CSA help

Gavin78 · 15 October 2017 at 1:40PM

Thanks for getting back to me.

I've just noticed that when I log into my wage slips online. (new thing we can do recently)

I can go back to my first ever wage when I started working.

So this is what I have found out. January 2009 is when CSA first too a payment by DEO £241 - listed as court order on my wage slip.

I have the letter they first sent me to say it was coming out of my wage at £30 a week however I was paying standing order at the time to them before the letter as I was arguing with them via letters that I wanted to pay them via standing order. eventually they gave in and sent a form.

Out of the blue I got a letter as stated above that they were taking it from my wage Jan 2009 so they took a standing order payment and the £241 payment in the same month. I didn't recieve any letters to say they were going to court or for the opportunity for me to attend.

I accepted it was coming out of my wage thought it was easier.

(just to clarify having just noticed I can look back at wages slips I no longer have that far now is helping)

About this time is when I hadn't actually moved in with partner I was a go between my mums, old address I was living at with my brother. CSA had my brothers address as a place of living.

About this time (Jan 2009) is when the baliff came to my mums over a debt I owed as I had that as my address I moved to when I split from ex so banks and so forth had a place to send mail. by which I gave him details to take out of my wage.

Me and my mum fell out we no longer talk and I move in with my brother. my mum left that house a long time ago. in any event that debt I stated with the credit card no longer exists in 2017 it's gone.

In Feb and March (2009) CSA took another 2 payments of £130

April 2009 payments of £21 started coming off my wage again this stated court order it was at this point I assumed it was the baliff had sorted stuff out with the court and they had gone along with what I had suggested as a payment plan

In January 2010 the court order dropped to £20 which as I said I just assumed was the debt being paid back.

Some where I must have not noticed CSA payments dropping down and I've had it in my head that it was already coming off my wage before I got paid.

If I had known I would have chased it up. Eventually in about December 2015 the court order notice on my wage slip changed to attachement orders. nothing changed with payments though stayed at £20.

(I hadn't noticed till today I could look at every wage slip since I started it's started to clear a few things up now)

I did eventually write to CSA to change address from my brothers to my wife's address. I never heard anything from them or anything at my brothers address. we then moved in 2013 I wrote to them again with my new address details and again heard nothing but I did noticed it had been signed for.

April 2017 is the first time CSA wrote to me in all these years to say it was changing to CMS hence me finding out that the £20 was CSA payments from my wage. Wages haven't been any help so I'm really confused looking back now how 3 payments came out £241 then x2 £130 then it dropped down to £21 and then a year later to £20 something has gone wrong.

As you say I need to do a SAR but thank you for getting back to me in detail.

Gavin78 · 15 October 2017 at 2:07PM

I sent you a PM also but unsure if you got it as it shows 0 sent messages in my PM box.

Gavin78 · 18 October 2017 at 3:07PM

I deleted the old one update.

I spoke to CSA today.

Basically they took 3 payments between Jan-mar 2009 £241, £131 and £131

There was then an order put in to drop it down to £21 a month and then from Jan 10 the same order was then dropped to £20 a month

The CSA lady said she couldn't understand or find anything on the computer that suggests why it did that she's never seen anything like it and has no explanation for it.

She said even the yearly statements I am supposed to get or any other letters haven't gone out either to me or my ex so the last time they spoke to her was 2006 until it went to CMS this year which she called them to ask about it.

They said the only time they spoke to my ex as CSA was when they went to close the case and they calculated the arrears and asked if she wanted them paying back.

Which she said yes.

They said to me on the phone in this instance although it is going to CMS (the arrears) I can pay back what I want at a rate I can afford and will leave a note on the file.

So what do I do at this point?

jimd-f · 26 October 2017 at 12:20PM

speak to stepchange so that they include your CMS debt in their figures.
call CMS back and make an offer to clear the arrears(£20 pm) in conjunction with what Stepchange advise.
you could end up just paying a total figure that Stepchange calculate you can afford and Stepchange will renegotiate with your other creditors.
the reason for your payments dropping could be because you had a short period on either sickness or the dole and CSA never put the payments back up when you restarted work

Gavin78 · 28 October 2017 at 1:41AM

Thanks for getting back to me.

I'm not sure you understand where I have been coming from.

The arrears have come from CSA only taking £20 a month for 8 years from my wage when they should have been taking around £130-£150 a month

This all started when they went for the DEO and it started coming out of my wage. There was an order put in to take £131 a month roughly or £30 a week but I was paid monthly.

Something went wrong she said with only 3 large payments coming out of my wage at the start of 2009 which was Jan-mar 2009 £241, £131 and £131 she said it then dropped to £21 a month for a year then again to £20 a month the year after that.

She doesn't know why this happened and couldn't explain at all. Any letters they send out or yearly statements didn't get sent out to me or my ex and when my wage goes up each year there was no assessment done either.

She basically admitted it was their fault but said the 12k has to be paid back either way.

Other than letting stepchange know my finance has changed I can't see them getting involved with CSA or CMS. I think this will be one for my MP and CAB

CSA.Hell someone who runs the site has also asked me to get in contact with them for further advice.

I have sent the SAR request off to them for all info they hold and wait for them to get back to me.

jimd-f · 28 October 2017 at 8:55AM

i understand perfectly!
did you have a period in 2009 where your wages stopped for any reason, or were reduced as that is the most logical reason for the drop in the DEO to £20pm.
as you have always been paying something your case has just been left in abeyance, as it has presumably not got to the debt or enforcement departments,
CSA would not look to do any changes to your case unless they were informed by you or your ex of a change of circumstances (unless you went on benefits) and would not do an annual review into your circumstances. it is your responsibility to make them aware of any changes.
the fact that you were paying something every month, i suspect, meant that nobody at CSA bothered to look at your case in any great detail and so they were happy that the DEO just continued.
the fact they made a mistake in not checking that the DEO was at the correct level does not alter the fact that you still owe the money that should have been paid to your ex and the arrears will not be reduced because they made this mistake.
you could write to your MP and i would suggest that you will probably get a reply apologising for the mistake but pointing out that you did not contact them about the level of DEO payments being taken. you might if you are really lucky get a token payment of £25 as part of the apology.
you should be careful about any advice you get from CAB as they are not experts on CSA law and you should double check any advice they give you before taking action on their advice. i know they do a good job normally in helping people but CSA law can be very complicated.
Stepchange will probably not contact CSA directly to negotiate a payment plan for your arrears but once you have done this they will take these payments into account when assessing what you can pay your other debtors.

jimd-f · 28 October 2017 at 9:07AM

having read your post and the reply on CSA.HELL i think you should be very careful of any advice given there as the tone of the reply seems to me to indicate that they are not very neutral in their opinion.
i think you will get more accurate information on here as some posters here appear to be either current or ex employees of CSA or have a broader picture of what you can or cannot expect, although sometimes it may not be what you want to hear

Gavin78 · 29 October 2017 at 12:17AM

Thanks,

My wage has never stopped for any reason. I am in the dark as much as CSA as to why after the 3rd payment of £131 it dropped to £21 a month. I'm hoping once I have a copy of what they hold I can then contact my CAB and MP for further advice.

It won't harm I suppose to try and get them to cancel the arrears (long shot I know but if you don't try you'll never know) I could ask for it to be halfed maybe.

While I could or should have taken some blame for not checking with CSA in 8 years. The fact I assumed they were always taking the right amount should lay with them. I was paying by standing order before they ordered the DEO and I never missed a payment so was unsure at the time why they did what they did but accepted that it was easier.

Cleary not as now I'm in this mess. My case to argue with them is that my ex never bothered to contact them since 2006 despite a drop in payments, CSA never bothered to check again when payments dropped and further down the line payments dropped again to £20 a month from £21 and nobody bothered to check.

I know they can clear arrears and I know I probably have more chance of winning the lottery but I will at least try and if they won't then perhaps I can use their mistake to at least leverage payments I can afford.

The Sar request might not even get there yet the only address they gave me didn't have a post code and the debt is being transfered to CMS now so whatever they agreed on the phone which was pretty much nothing I will now have to deal with them.

They plan was pay what I can afford each month as long as something is paid to start clearing the arrears. A note was supposed to have been left on the computer.

Turns out the only note that was left was that I called them that was it.

As it stands at the moment I will take any advice onboard and judge the good from the bad. So far other than you Jimd-F I haven't been given any advice other than to send a SAR request in.

I might not need my MP if CMS are fair with payments if I have to pay it back.

CSA help

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