Please help! CSA advice needed urgently!

Dolphin999_2

My boyfriend recently received a letter from the CSA saying he owed them £13000 immediately, he has tried taking out a loan from the bank and has also applied online through various compaines for unsecured loands. However he has a very poor credit history including a CCJ and has been refused. The other option was that they take 500 a month out of his wages for 2 years, he rents and has bills to pay so paying 500 a month would leave him with no home as he would be unable to afford the rent and bills. Will the CSA accept a monthly payment but over a longer period of time or can they demand the 500 regardless of him being unable to afford to live? Why can they just send a letter out of the blue demanding this? Im scared of baliffs coming and just need some help. They are ringing him on Wednesday with regards to how to pay the £13000 so he is running out of time. Please help.

marksoton

Well the first job is to find out if he actually owes this money. Is it possible he has arrears of £13000 ?

Dolphin999_2

Well so they say? He said there was a period where he split up with his ex put paid her directly (not through CSA)

marksoton

It does not matter what they say. He needs to ascertain if the debt is legitimate and the figures correct. £13000 does not happen overnight !

Mr_Green_Genes

He needs to put in an immediate appeal as the arrears figures is almost certainly wrong (it is in practically every case). That needs to be in writing and contain the word Appeal in very large letters so even the gestapo can't claim it wasn't done properly. You should tell them that the figure is wrong and demand a breakdown, setting out exactly how they have arrived at the figure.

Always deal in writing, this cuts down the possibility of their lying to you which is their normal method of behaviour.

By the way, they will ignore any payments directly from him to her, unless he can provide incontrovertible evidence that the payments were for child maintenance.

Dolphin999_2

Thanks for your advice. If the amount turned out to be correct, do you think they would accept a resonable lower payment per month?

Mr_Green_Genes

The thing is that they have a management steer to collect maximum arrears within 2 years (contrary to what they will undoubtedly tell you, it isn't the law, it's just departmental policy - the law says arrears are negotiable). As they are a fairly unintelligent lot, they think this means that they MUST collect all the money within 2 years regardless of the impact. Therefore, what you or I or anyone with an IQ above their shoe size deem reasonable is not what the gestapo deem.

All you can do is try to do what the law says you are entitled to do and that is negotiate, appeal generally do all the things suggested on here and other sites.

slim1982

why was nt he making payments then he would nt of had this hassle

marksoton

slim1982 wrote: »

why was nt he making payments then he would nt of had this hassle

Rubbish....

kelloggs36

It's a pertinent question - was the OP paying anything or did he refuse to pay, or what? Not enough info has been posted for us to assume that he is either totally innocent in this OR that he has avoided his responsibilities through choice and has now been caught up with. So question has been asked.

jacklink

i dont think it is anyone's business whether OP has previously paid or not, i think the question was

'' Please help! CSA advice needed urgently''

Advise is what OP is asking for not persecution