CSA debt,here we go again....

alwoowar

Hi all,

Last year i paid £16,000 to the csa in arrears,for a son i've not seen since 1999,due to threats of violence against me if i made any attempt at contact. I had to remortgage my family home to do it much to my wifes severe irritation :mad:.

Since doing this i have been in regular contact with the agency,arguing about the asessments,about their methods etc and all the time more debt has been building up. We are on tax credits,i am a full time student with a part time job earning £96pw and have now been re-asessed to pay £6.10pw,tho they are now chasing me for another £2100 which has been accrued since paying the 16k. On the phone the debt recovery team are unwilling to take into account the new assessment figures and are trying to force me in to paying it off on my credit cards (would lead to me not being able to pay those with the obvious consequences),or take me to court. I've tried offering to pay a total of £10pw which at the moment is all i can afford as i still have to keep a roof over my families head and pay bills etc,the least they will accept is £30 plus the £6.10 which would leave me the grand sum of £59.90 out of my wages. I think my protected earnings are meant to be £125.

Is their a way i can i get them to accept a reasonable amount?Would i be better off to just let them take me to court? All our money as a family is needed,there is never any spare! Any advice is appreciated,i feel like i'm drowning from the stress of it and maybe my wife and 2 children would actually be better off without me here anymore as with me around everything is in jeopardy._pale_

bdt1

Don't ever think that your wife and children are better off without you, I'm a NRPP, been through/going through the mill, sometimes thought all would be good if not with hubs (nrp), but - no, I love him and so do our children.

The CSA are always reluctant to any negotiation, if you do go to Court a Court will be more flexible, even if it gets to bailiffs, their aim/objective is to set affordable repayment terms not seize goods - Court may be of benefit to you, and remember the Magistrate is impartial, CSA are not - you can put your case forward. Only drawback is that as I understand LO can be gained direct now without Court involvement, but then if you still fail to pay bailiffs will be involved, whereby again negotiation with them can start, if not the CSA will then apply for CCJ, whereby again you can negotiate with County Court through an N??? form, Blob is best to advise if you ever get to this stage.

kelloggs36

How come there were such high arrears?

catenorfolk

just what I was going to ask,
you beat me to it kellogs!!! lol

alwoowar

I used to pay her weekly by arrangement without the csa involvement,until 1999,then she stopped all contact after meeting her new fella and running away to cornwall which was where i traced her to. When i found them the new guy,who she was by now married to threatened to break every bone in my body if i attempted to make contact with my son. (I used to have him every other weekend til she did the disappearing act) Unknown to me they were claiming benefits which in turn made me liable to pay the CSA. I wasnt settled in any one place at the time which made me hard to trace,tho when i did settle down in around 2002/03 they traced me thru my work and PAYE,i refused to pay for a son i didnt see under threat of violence,and moved on to start a family with my new partner,the CSA left me alone for 2-3 years then came knocking demanding 12-13k which i fought for some time and eventually under threat of them taking house thru courts i had to remortgage and pay up,which was 16k by time it came to court etc.:eek:

Just wanted to add i've got no problem with paying for my son if i was able to see him,its the CSA's total discard of the threats to my person etc that really gets my back up,if it wasn't for the fact that she is claiming benefits there would have been absolutely no involvement by them. She didnt want anything from me after she met her fella.

catenorfolk

unfortunately its not the csa's juridiction, they cant cope with getting monies let alone threats on a person!!

kelloggs36

Unfortunately it isn't pay per view, so you still had a legal responsibility to contribute financially for your child even if you couldn't see him. I sympathise with your situation, but you made the wrong choice and that is why you are facing the difficulties you are now - you owe the money without question and the CSA have got their act together and are recovering it.

blimey40

Offer to pay the £2100 over two years??

pd001

Weird isnt it?
The Op in this thread is being chased for arrears, and has paid a big lump sum to pay off arrears.

The nrp in the following thread doesn t appear to have been chased for arrears at all.
(if indeed a case has been opened) but as the Op in that thread has stated...

kelloggs: in all honesty i dont know if its open or not, i will have to check with my dad. i assumed that if you have kids you have to pay for them and that was that!! i was so obviously wrong! it makes it very easy for people to not pay!!

One rule for.........

alwoowar

I understand what you are saying kellog,i dont deny that i owe the money,its more the fact that i am willing to come to an arrangement with them. I have said as much on the phone to them today but the amounts they are asking me to pay are above what i can afford by a long way. (cant actually afford anything at mo but have offered more than double my weekly amount so as to show i'm willing and not ignoring the problem)

Over the last year i have actually complied with most of their wishes and communicated with them,and as i said earlier,paid 16k of arrears tho this all seems to count for nothing now. The 16k was actually raised when my circumstances were much rosier,working full time on a decent hourly rate. Now the credit crunch has arrived my financial situation has changed, barely above min wage now and down to 16hrs a wk,hence the reasessment. I would have hoped with the present economic climate the CSA might be more willing to come up with a plan more suitable for the times along with being more sympathetic? The screws are tight enough as it is for some of us without the extra pressure that this lot are applying through a lack of flexibility. :mad:

kelloggs36

The CSA are like banks at the moment - the money is owed and they will get it by fair means or by force. If they had been more like this at the beginning, my bet is that there would be much less people willing to chance not paying as they have been left far too long and been led to believe that they had got away with it.

There are those who haven't been chased, but from the other thread it isn't clear if there are any arrears actually due. It may have been that the NRP in that case had a nil assessment due to low income (on CS1 that was very common). Unless that OP comes back and states that money is definately due, then we can't state that they have been negligent. It isn't too late anyway, they can (and are) go back to previous cases which have been suspended, in order to recover the money now.