csa arrear problems

hi apologies for the long post

ex and I have 2 girls, we were together for nearly 8 years, near the end of our relationship ex had become very aggressive towards myself and the children, once we had split I had the girls for the weekend when my daughter told me that mum had hurt her and sister, she showed me bruising and told me what ex had done to them, I called the police the children were interviewed and taken to hospital for examination, the doctor agreed the bruising and the children’s version of events coincide with each other, the social services stepped in. The children remained in my care until the court hearing, against the social, doctors and schools wishes the judge ordered for the children to go back to their mother on the condition that a child protection order was put in place, to sum up the time she had them whilst on child protection, she had friends in her house using drugs with the children present, endless relationships with men that were deemed not fit to be around children (she was supposed to inform the social of any new relationship) she failed to inform them about any.. the physical and emotional abuse continued, the children would often go without breakfast or dinner, she failed to get them to school on time, there attendance at school was very poor, the last relationship she was in the guy inappropriately touched my daughter, ex told my daughter to keep this a secret or she would go to prison, once the truth was out, it was at this point the social stepped in and had them removed from ex's care on the 14/12/14 the children have remained in my care since.

My situation.....

When ex and I were in a relationship I used to run an online business from home as well as being employed, when the relationship ended so did the online business, the reason for this was mainly due to the stress of having the children away from me (not the best time in my life).

ex always received payments for child maintenance directly from myself with cash (upon reflection probably not the best idea). I have text messages from her as proof regarding this. In September 2013 she made a csa claim against me saying no such payments were ever made, the csa contacted HMRC for my previous years tax return, this would have been for my employed and self employed, this did in no way reflect what I was earning at the time of the csa claim was made... a doe order was put in force with my employer because at the time I disputed the amount I had to pay as I was only employed at the time. the doe order they were taking was the correct amount and they were taking this from me weekly. Recently the csa said at the time they gave me the opportunity to prove I was only employed. I don’t recall this but to be fair I wasn’t in a good place.

The case was closed in jan 2015 1 month after the children resided with me and all payments were stopped. I have had the children now for 3 years, ex doesn’t have any access to them at all. In the 3 years ive had the children I have never had any csa payments from ex. Last week I received a doe order from the csa for arrears from 4 years ago saying I owe ex something in the region of £5700 for the year she had them!! They have setup an order to be deducted from my current employer starting in jan 18.

I have spoken to the csa and asked them were they got this figure from, they told me they used my previous years tax records (2012) I told them that in 2013 when the order was made I wasn’t self employed only employed, they have the updated records on their system from HMRC which clearly show my income had dropped a considerable amount around £44,000 to be precise, I have been told that although they can see that is true, at the time the case was made it wasn’t disputed and they cannot now change it?? (I did dispute this with them) They have the evidence there to prove I was not earning the money they thought I was yet they cant amend it? This cannot be right, I’m paying thousands of pounds I never had, also they already closed the case and now its reopened?

I live alone with my 2 girls, I am the only earner in the household, I have a mortgage, bills and 2 girls to pay for, I’m not entitled to any benefit and simply cannot pay the £160 a month to clear this supposed £5700 debt owed to ex. We have had enough bad luck to last us a lifetime and this is a very stressful time. We struggle as it is even with some help from my parents.

is there any way i can get help with the way this is being dealt with, the csa wont amend i, they have my updated records from the HMRC for the year 2013 yet they wont amend the supposed arrears. The figures they are using is false. They are using my previous years income which is substantially higher. I have always worked and never claimed. This is totally unfair.

i hope that makes sense.

any suggestions are welcome, i have emailed my MP but dont know if it will help!