Letter from CSA yesterday

Rebe

My OH has been paying £160 a month to the CSA for the past 5 years, he received a letter at our home (however the only address they had for him was his mums and he hadn't changed it cos she just forwards it on)
The letter said that he was overdue paying £72 which was due by 23/03/09 (he then went to pay the £160 on 24th) so was unsure about letter.
Having called them today he was told he was in arrears by about 4k as he was supposed to have paid £72 a week since May last year, however his case worker agreed with him that as he's paid £40 a week on time and never misses a payment they were happy to leave it at that and this letter is the first we'd heard different.

With regards to the address, he was told he phoned up to change it at beginning of feb, but we only moved in at the end of feb, so we're curious as to how they got the address?

The case worker he also dealt with (re £40 a week) has now left.

Also he's declaring bankruptcy on 14th April so this is the last thing he needs but will the arrears be cleared with that?

Thank you in advance and sorry for rambling on. :wall:

pd001

Rebe wrote: »

My OH has been paying £160 a month to the CSA for the past 5 years, he received a letter at our home (however the only address they had for him was his mums and he hadn't changed it cos she just forwards it on)
The letter said that he was overdue paying £72 which was due by 23/03/09 (he then went to pay the £160 on 24th) so was unsure about letter.
Having called them today he was told he was in arrears by about 4k as he was supposed to have paid £72 a week since May last year, however his case worker agreed with him that as he's paid £40 a week on time and never misses a payment they were happy to leave it at that and this letter is the first we'd heard different.

With regards to the address, he was told he phoned up to change it at beginning of feb, but we only moved in at the end of feb, so we're curious as to how they got the address?

The case worker he also dealt with (re £40 a week) has now left.

Also he's declaring bankruptcy on 14th April so this is the last thing he needs but will the arrears be cleared with that?

Thank you in advance and sorry for rambling on. :wall:

I think that csa arrears are excluded from being included in bankruptcy.

In other words i think that he will still owe the csa any outstanding arrears, after he is declared bankrupt

Rebe

Thank you, didn't think it would.

Does anyone know the best way to proceed now we have these arrears. We really weren't aware of it until now and don't know what to do.

kelloggs36

They may have got the address from the LA or looked up his credit record to see where he was registered, or looked on the national insurance database which may have been updated.

If he declares himself bankrupt he will still have to pay. Where do you go from here? Clearly the arrears have accrued because he was paying below the set rate - in order for the CSA to ignore it, it should have been on direct pay, ie direct to the PWC who would have had the choice to have asked him for less money although she could have asked for backdated payments within a reasonable amount of time. As payments were due to the Agency, there is no such leeway - I wonder why your caseworker left? She cannot make such decisions about what is fair to take unless it is in respect of arrear and even then hands are tied by senior management as to what is acceptable or not!

You can try and argue that your ex is happy to forgoe the arrears - can you get evidence of this? Have you got a new assessment in place to reflect low earnings?

Rebe

Why would his old caseworker agree to £160 pcm if it wasn't going to stay at that amount, and he was going to end up in arrears?

We haven't yet got a new assessment done because he's only working 2-3days a week and we worked out that based on his earnings, he was acutally paying less than he should.
As for the arrears, all his money goes towards, some rent, food, car etc (he's had to stop paying other bills as he hasn't enough) he can't afford the 4k in arrears, its just not possible, surely its the CSA's mistake not ours?

As for his ex, they have no contact at all and the times we've attempted to contact her, she's ignored it or just become abusive.