Child Maintenance (CSA) questions (merged)

kelticangel

Hi

first time posting and im in a bit of a pickle .. in Nov 05 my partner recieved a letter from the CSA saying that he was believed to be the father of a little girl about 4 years old (he is 100% sure he isn't the father, doesnt even recognise the mothers name) he disputed parentage and as expected a demand (from mother) for a dna test came through ... he sent this away on the 7th April 2006 recieved confirmation that the tests had arrived on 10th April 2006 just waiting on child and mothers tests to arrive but the testing centre cannot get hold of her and of course to get a case worker from the CSA to come to the phone has cost me a fortune in phonecalls and they havent called back when asked to do so..

I hate to say it but i want to see these results before i can move on, plan for a family of our own one day even apply for a loan for home improvements as im sure back dated CSA payments will put our plans on hold for a very long time ....

can anyone help??

iluvfreebies

DNA testing can take some time depending on the amount of work they have on at that time. If the parent with care doesnt consent to the her or the child being tested then it will be assumed that your partner is not the father. What i would advise is that your partner keeps some money aside each week so that if he is deemed the father (sorry but ive saw it happen) then he wont face a massive arrears bill as this is backdated until the letter were issued to you. hopefully everything will work out in your favour
Good luck

CGG

Hi
My husband recently had his child maintenance payments reviewed. At the Magistrates Court he was presented with a complete print-out of his payments from day one, to date. They showed arrears, to which he disputed existed. A date was set for him to attend Court again with either proof of payments made or his payment for the arrears.
He requested from the Bank copies of cheques paid to the Court, which had all cleared okay for around the time the 'arrears' appeared on the print-out. These did not arrive in time from the Bank before he had to appear in Court. He went along, armed with Bank Statements (although they weren't proof of payment in themselves), and a copy of the letter written to the Bank asking for copies of the relevant cheques. Anyway, the 'hearing' was adjourned for a few more weeks to allow the Bank time to dig out these cheques from 3 years ago.
Copies of the cheques have now arrived. On checking them against the Courts print-out, these payments have clearly not been incuded on it. There are no arrears, but clearly human error kicked in,in the Courts accounts office.
We have posted copies of the cheques, along with a stiffly written letter to the Court asking where they allocated these payments at the time they received them, (three years ago), as they clearly weren't put on my husbands Child Maintenance account.
But as he has already lost half a days pay in attending Court over the apparent 'arrears', which were proven as non-existent, we wonder if he can apply to the Court for some form of recompense as this was their clerical error.
Has anyone had any similar experience? Thanks

dottyanne

Probably no as the law is an !!! in this country and the CSA seems to believe everything the parent with care tells them no matter what - i too am a parent with care but i would NEVER deal with these incompetents!!

sexy_fufu

CSA = Waste of time

calleyw

dottyanne wrote:

the CSA seems to believe everything the parent with care tells them no matter what -

They do and without question which annoys me. My husbands Ex told the CSA that she was not getting back pay. Which was a total and utter lie.

And my husband had to prove it not her prove it. He had to get all his bank statements to send off to them to prove that during the times she claimed that he was not paying extra he was.

It all had to be gone through with a fine tooth comb. And in the end it was proved that had been paying all the time.

But it caused stress and untold hassle as he had to get re-prints of statements from the bank.

Yours

Calley

Walnut_whipp

The CSA are a joke!!! I have had major problems with them and my ex's employers... he has a deductions of earnings order with the amounts owes clearly written ... and yet his employers see fit to take away £70 one month from my due payment... i complained to the CSA who said that the employer put it down to a clerical error... my responce was will I will have a clerical error with my fist through their window if they do it again... while I live in poverty, they make mistakes which affect my basic living..... no food for at least two weeks... not able to pay my bills. There is nothing I can do... Im so upset and angry at both the CSA and my Ex's employers!!!

snolly

I'm not a newbie but I've lost my other details (long time), so apologies for that. Any advice greatfully received. I'll try and be brief

I have a court order to pay maintenance for my 3 kids, but was made redundant last year. At the same time, my child access changed to 50/50 shared care. The redundancy was quite substantial but it all went to pay off the mortgage. I'm now self-employed but earning very little. To cut a long story short, the magistrates court said I still have to pay £180 a month maintenance even though the kids live with me half the time. Solicitor said I have to now go to the County Court where the original order was made for a variation downward. My opinion is that maybe they will just look at it the same way - got a lot of money last year so pay up even though next to no income now. They just dont seem to take into account the 50/50 care of the kids at all.

Ex-wifes income with benefits is £1500/net. No mortgage. Owns her own place.

Am I wasting my money going to the County Court or should I persevere? It just does not seem right that I'm paying anything at all when we share the kids access. Why isn't she paying me?!

Also - if I don't pay the £180 a month - are the bailiffs going to come calling or would that not be in the best interests of the kids, were they on their time with me?

Thanks in anticipation.
Dave

nicola1982_2

They should have to reassess your income and circumstances. Are you going through the CSA? Because I was under the assumption that they were the only body that court force maintenance. If so then ring them and demand the reassess you.

calleyw

nicola1982 wrote:

They should have to reassess your income and circumstances. Are you going through the CSA? Because I was under the assumption that they were the only body that court force maintenance. If so then ring them and demand the reassess you.

The CSA are not the only body that can force maintenance. It can sometimes be done via a court order. But it seems strange that there is a court order as the CSA have been around since about 1993.

I have no idea if going back to court will help. With the CSA and new rules they don't take the PWC income in to consideration which in this case is the mother. In this case they will only take the fathers income. But you do get a reduction for how often you have the children to stay.

Not being funny but the for the sake of a £180 would it not be better to pay it and not change over to the CSA. As it is very hard work and they can't never seem to get anything right. And from the start it will take a min of 6 months to get any figures out of them.

I assume you are claiming all the benefits you are entitled to if you are on low pay like WTC.

I think the court will look at how you spent the money. If it was on drinking and women then they might say tough. But as you spent it on paying off the mortgage rather than wasting it. Then I think that is a different matter.

No matter what happens I wish you all the best.


Yours


Calley