CSA suddenly tell me my next payment will drop by £350 this month. Advice please!!

parkysaves

Loving the post Soubrette!! :rotfl:

Oh, oh, oh ........ if I only lived in an ideal world where the man I married didnt have an affair with the childminder, not want to leave me so threaten to leave me and the kids with nothing if i went, hence me staying another 3 years until she got pregnant and I eventually found the strength to end it. Where the man didnt then disappear, only to then take the childrens passports, leaving me nervous for months that he would take them away. Where I found out at mediation that there was over £40,000 of debt on cards that I had no knowledge of and yet I was being blamed for for extravagant holidays (disproved in court as we only had 1 foreign hol in 3 years!!!). Where I went back to work full time with 2 young children to cover the £150000 mortgage I was left to pay after I paid my ex off and couldnt so now have a bad credit rating and large mortgage rate now. (this I discovered had been changed to an interest only mortgage as the endowment had been cashed ... yes, signed by me 3 DAYS AFTER I GAVE BIRTH and I do not remember!!!).
If only I had had the foresight to not rely on the maintenance money to repay all the debts I found myself having after all that and had maybe cut back on the odd jacket potato with beans and cheese when I really push the boat out!!

Look, the man is in a job that I have NEVER had to worry about and NEVER will. Maintenance is not a luxury. I don't drink it, smoke it or lavish gifts on myself. It pays the bills, it pays for a life where the childrens dad was earning in excess of £2500 a month and now I'm earning £560 and its not their fault. Do you even have children???????

Sorry :lipsrseal rant over Lol!!! That earlier post was clearly meant to rile me and congrats it worked. :A:whistle: All calm now

parkysaves

Well, isn't it amazing how things can change!!

Long story short time Lol!!! Errors, errors,errors. :rotfl:

Went to Complaints as suggested on here (thank you everyone!) and they were fantastic. I was trying to get the amount paid over a longer period and as the specific caseworker had apologised to me for not phoning and setting up a payment plan. Never even ocurred to me that the actual amount might be wrong!!
It appears that instead of £3000,I have infact been overpaid by £662. Quite a difference. The complaints dept also said that the larger payback amount has been set up to be collected until Nov 2011 in error (my letter says Feb 2010) so I would have paid well over the odds back if I hadn't challenged it.
Also, I wasn't told that in these situations, the CSA pay back the NRP from their "pot" and then take the money back from me over the arranged period. This way, it avoids any unneccesary hostilities being built up between NRP and PWC. This wasn't mentioned to me until Complaints time!!
So, I am quite pleased as I took it for granted that at least their figures were right.
My ex has complained too as he could have had the full amount refunded to him by the CSA in one go if they had got their act together.

Just to re-iterate the points about not relying on maintenance, I am on good terms with my ex and his wife - I feel I have to for the sake of my children, they are more important than any feelings of the past I may have. He is a highly respected member of one of the public services so if he lost his job then the country is in a real tight spot! If he was in a less secure job then okay maybe I would be aware of maintenance maybe stopping but I dont lead an extravagant life and the money is on mort, bills and saving for future uni costs (hopefully!!). The only reason would be illness or god forbid death and then I would have to cope for my children but for now he is working and so it is not an issue.
I would be interested to see posts from people who save their maintenance and manage to live without it, treating it as maybe a bit of luxury money.;)

traveller

I'm glad you managed to get that sorted out. I too would like to hear of those that have the maintainance gathering dust,lol;)

DaisyChainMaker

Glad you got everything sorted out. But what a waste of time and emotion you had to go through due to their mistake. geesh x

parkysaves

Just another update. Nowgot written confirmation that the reason the error was made was because they had me down as receiving maintenance payments direct and via a DEO !!!!!!! Hence, it was showing that I have been overpaid as it looks as though I was getting two lots!! Like my ex would have let that happen!!

CRANKY40

If you were overpaid due to a CSA error, or you were on Income Support at the time that the overpayment was calculated or made, then you should not be asked to repay the overpayment. It's in the rules, honest! The NRP should be compensated from government funds as you've stated above, and that should be the end of the matter.

Forgetting to include some children from as far back as 2005 sounds like a CSA error?

parkysaves

Kelloggs, do you know if this post by Cranky is true (not doubting you Cranky Lol!!) and what are the rules re this,not necessarily for me, but just out of interest as it's been mentioned.

nicolabrown81

Sorry but nothing can be done, your ex husband overpaid and he is entitled to this back. Think how you would feel if it was the other way round, you would want it back wouldnt you.

We currently pay csa for my husbands daughter from his previous marriage and she is entitled too more than what our own daughter is entitled too. We also have to pay to have her over weekends at a hotel as her mother will not let us bring her home as its a 6 hour round trip.

I'm sorry but you are going to have to get used too it and maybe possibly go to work full time like the rest of us do.

Soubrette

nicolabrown81 wrote: »

Sorry but nothing can be done, your ex husband overpaid and he is entitled to this back. Think how you would feel if it was the other way round, you would want it back wouldnt you.

We currently pay csa for my husbands daughter from his previous marriage and she is entitled too more than what our own daughter is entitled too. We also have to pay to have her over weekends at a hotel as her mother will not let us bring her home as its a 6 hour round trip.

I'm sorry but you are going to have to get used too it and maybe possibly go to work full time like the rest of us do.

I think you may have missed the rest of the thread where it turns out that the CSA made a mistake (who'd have thunk :rolleyes:) and the arrears were a lot less than parkysaves was originally told.

It's always worth looking into these things whether the PWC is being asked to pay back arrears or an NRP suddenly gets a vast arrears payment bill and told to pay it back instantly.

Sometimes nothing can be done - but more often mistakes are found, repayments can be negotiated etc.

Sorry to hear that you are having problems with your child maintenance - why not start a thread and find out if there is anything that can be done in your situation - for example you may be able to get a reduction for the costs of seeing your partner's daughter.

Sou

kelloggs36

The CSA should ASK the PWC to refund any overpaid money, and if there is an ongoing case it will be recouped by reducing future payments. However, if case is closed, they can't force them to repay it and they will compensate the NRP out of taxpayer funds.