Help needed the csa are driving us nuts

Soubrette

Here is something from the CSA Employers FAQ

http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/employers/qanda.asp#Q11

Should the protected earnings figure be a for a monetary value or a percentage (60%)?

The Agency must send out the deduction from earnings order with a monetary amount (for protected earnings). If you receive an order which does not contain a monetary amount, you should contact the Child Support Agency centre who sent you the order, and ask them to send you a revised order. You should return the incorrect order to the originating Child Support Agency centre.

If you are allowed to see the DEO then could you check the protected earnings amount and check to see if it's for a monetary amount?

Sou

pen1206

Have you made a complaint to the complaints resolution team ? if not you need to do this straight away you can do this on the internet or by phone, if they try and tell you can't do this by phone insist that on the csa website it tells you you can! They then only have a few days to come back to you every time i have tried this funnily enough somebody has become available. The other way is through you MP they seem to get things moving Hope this helps

CRANKY40

No matter what the arrears or the DEO amount, the person paying the order must be left with the protected earnings amount. If they are left with less than the protected earnings amount then the employer is not operating the order correctly.

kelloggs36

Have the wages decreased since the assessment was done?

CRANKY40

caz1964 wrote: »

It looks like we are on a no goer here then.I still cant understand how they can touch his protected earnings,when they state that he needs that amount to live on.I dont know how he would survive to be honest if he was on his own.Looks like i will have to see if i can get some extra hour in at my place of work(i doubt it though)

They can't. Regardless of how much the DOE is for, he must be left with the protected earnings amount. The order is issued for a percentage of his net income, regardless of his protected income, but the protected income must not be breached.

caz1964

That is what i thought as well cranky40.They cannot touch his protected earnings.A friend of mine said they tried to do it to her brother then they realised that they were doing the wrong thing after he had threatened to walk out of his job and getting his mp involved.

Anyway we have had some good progress today.My partner has spoken to his case worker and even he said that it is wrong.They cannot go into his proteted earnings.
He said that he is going to get this case sorted as it is in a complete shambles and that he is only to pay what he was orinaqlly paying before they had made the mistake of saying he had nothing to pay.We have the last two months of csa in the bank. so hopefully they will get there end of things sorted and we can get back to normality.

The best part about today is that we had emailed our MP about this and they are now going to try and help us.
I think i may sleep a little easier tonight.
Thanks all for your replies.You have all been very helpful.
I will let you know what the outcome is.
Once again thankyou.

Mr_Falling_Star

caz1964 wrote: »

That is what i thought as well cranky40.They cannot touch his protected earnings.A friend of mine said they tried to do it to her brother then they realised that they were doing the wrong thing after he had threatened to walk out of his job and getting his mp involved.

Anyway we have had some good progress today.My partner has spoken to his case worker and even he said that it is wrong.They cannot go into his proteted earnings.
He said that he is going to get this case sorted as it is in a complete shambles and that he is only to pay what he was orinaqlly paying before they had made the mistake of saying he had nothing to pay.We have the last two months of csa in the bank. so hopefully they will get there end of things sorted and we can get back to normality.

The best part about today is that we had emailed our MP about this and they are now going to try and help us.
I think i may sleep a little easier tonight.
Thanks all for your replies.You have all been very helpful.
I will let you know what the outcome is.
Once again thankyou.

I was in a similar sort of position to you a couple of years back. I went to my MP, Kevin Barron (he deserves a mention for his heroics), he listened to me for a minute or so and told me that he would write to the CSA and not to worry. Previous to this I was being stonewalled by them and having to pay 33% of my wages over despite only having two kids and no arrears. Well I get a grovelling letter from the CSA a fortnight later saying they were wrong and my payments put down to something a bit more reasonable. It really was a lesson in raw power.

One piece of advice, MP's often hold their surgery on Saturdays so you might want to check and see if there is one tomorrow. Its better if you go and see him/her rather than email and good luck!

kelloggs36

Certainly under CS1 the CSA told the employer the amount to take, not the % which meant that arrears often built up because they couldn't collect the full amount requested as they had a set figure for a protected amount.