CSA payments crippling me

evertondave

Please help me to look into the CSA I am paying, as I know I should be paying towards my children's upkeep but I am financially being crippled and struggling to survive with the weekly finances I have at my disposal. I can not understand why I have been paying back payments for over 17 months now. I do not know how you expect someone to live a life on 110 GBP per week take home pay and pay my bills. I have 53GBP rent, 25GBP council tax and my other bills.

My ex partner took over the up keep of my children back in August 2006 and before this I was their sole person bringing them up. Since August 2006 and up to October 2007 I had very little income and had to survive on a job seekers allowance which I only received on a few occasions during this period. Since 0ctober 2007 I have worked at Higham farm hotel earning on average 175 GBP a week to take home but in January 2008 I had to start to pay CSA and so my take home pay averaged around 110 GBP after having 50 GBP CSA taken off my pay which leaves very little to survive on, which include CSA payments of 15 GBP back payment a week.

This as now been 72 week period I have been paying back payments (approx 68 weeks back payments paid) so approx 1020 GBP i have paid. This seems a lot of money in over payments when I have had so little income coming in since I have not been living with my children.

I have recently received a letter from the CSA saying I owe 61GBP per week for the next 3 months to include back payment and then it goes down to 36GBP after that period. This seem a long time to be paying back payment and they dont believe I had no income coming in to be paying CSA during oct 2007 to october 2008 but i was just begging of friends and travelling. They say its just tough on me but I cant even afford food to live on. Can you help

kelloggs36

Just a word of advice - don't put any personal details on this forum - such as your real name and your place of work.

When did the CSA first contact you? Was this back in August 2006? If so, at what point did you tell them that you had no income? Did you notify them at the time? If not, then they cannot accept this information retrospectively and arrears will have built up.

They have been taking about 40% of your net income to recover the arrears which is the maximum they can take. To be able to work out if your arrears are correct, we need to know the date that the CSA case started, and the date that you knew what you had to pay per week, ie the period between August 2006 and Oct 2007 (if this is how long it took).

evertondave

When I left in august 2006, I had no income so I did not think I had to contact the CSA, but the social security contacted them to take 5 GBP out of my job seekers in around Nov 2006 but i gave job seekers up after a month to try and travel and live of doing voluntary work in exchange for living in hostels around the world but I could not afford this either and returned back to UK to get work and provide for my kids.

Thanks for your help

I only know my working CSA case started in end of january 2008 and started work in Oct 2007. sorry im not more helpful.

pd001

evertondave wrote: »

When I left in august 2006, I had no income so I did not think I had to contact the CSA, but the social security contacted them to take 5 GBP out of my job seekers in around Nov 2006 but i gave job seekers up after a month to try and travel and live of doing voluntary work in exchange for living in hostels around the world but I could not afford this either and returned back to UK to get work and provide for my kids.

Thanks for your help

I only know my working CSA case started in end of january 2008 and started work in Oct 2007. sorry im not more helpful.

So, in order for £5.00 per week to have been taken from your jobseekers allowance back in 2006, I think that we must assume that there was an open csa case in 2006?

evertondave

yes the benefits office must of contacted the csa in 2006 when i made a benefits claim. the issue was that i probably only claimed a couple of month's total in job seekers allowance between aug 2006 and oct 2007. but have had my csa calculted all the way back to aug 2006 and had to pay 50 aweek since jan 2008 and now its going up to 61 aweek. i have an average gross pay of 174 and they claim i should pay 36 per week for 2 children and 25 backpay per week. my ex is on benefits so i cant do an agreement with him either.

thanks

kelloggs36

Did you tell the CSA that you had left the country? If not, then any assessment will stand.

evertondave

No I did not tell the CSA about going abroad, i was just scared at the time as my ex was violent to me and I was so eager to get away.

Can you tell me if 36 GBP out of an average 175.45 GBP gross pay, not taking into account my over payments I am paying is the correct amount I should be paying each week. I do know I should pay for my kids but I have nothing to live on and cant even afford to take them out when I see them each week.

kelloggs36

How many children?