help please

dippynina

I am in despair at the letter we have just received from the CSA and any advice would be greatly received. I will give you some background info first. For his twin boys (age 16) my OH pays the CSA £83.00 (£42.00 regular payment and £41.00 arrears). This was set up a year ago, and the CSA stated that due to new laws we needed to pay off the arrears within 2 years.
We have one son 2 days a week and this son has recently started working fulltime. When I saw the letter I assumed it was to say our payments were to be reduced. It actually said our normal payment was now £47.00 per week. , so we were basically paying more for one son than we did for two. I called the CSA to query this. The gentleman I spoke to was very nice but couldn't give me an explanation and just said this sometimes happens. They also said they were going to call us today anyway with regard to the arrears. They were putting up our arrears payment to £67.00 per week..about an extra £100 per month!

The reason I am so upset is that we are on a DMP with CCCS for £154.00 per month and on a very tight budget. If we need to pay arrears an extra £100 per month, we will only have £54.00 per month for our creditors which I believe the CCCS won’t accept.

I do not understand how the CSA can ‘move the goalposts’ . At the moment our arrears balance stands at £2200 and would have been paid off now in around 52 weeks as originally agreed. Now they want it paid of in approx 33 weeks. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I really don't know what to do.

kelloggs36

If you are on CS1 then it is very possible that maintenance for one child will increase because it isn't the amount you pay split between the number of children - it is much more complicated than that. There is the maintenance requirement figure and all the child allowances which get factored into the equation which makes it more difficult and often it increases a lot - particularly if the assessment had not been changed for a number of years as the child rates have shot through the roof.

plinky1

Yes my OH was paying an assesment amount and an amount of arrears per week.

CSA decided this was not enough and demanded more arrears per week.

OH just could not afford the first request never mind the second.

Spoke to CSA and requested a "suitable aggreement".

You will see in their guidline on their site and in their leaflets that it actually states:
"We will work to help Non Resident Parents (NRP) meet their financial responsibilities for their children. In some circumstances it may be possible to negotiate an agreement that will offer a suitable payment option to repay the arrears".

OH stated that as they told him they needed to have this debt repaid within 2 years they still would if they lowered the amount of arrears each week to XYZ plus the assesment amount added that by his calculations the arears would in fact be paid back in 49 weeks.

The first CSA worker we had became quite treatening saying "do you realise I can take 40% if I want to".
OH said "do you realise that I told you I was recording this conversation and I have asked for help and a suitable agreement as stated on your website. As the CSA just sent me a letter TELLING me what to pay, I do not find that "suitable".
They reduced it a little, but it was better than nothing.

Then we found out that for three years they had not included one of the other relevant children in our house hold.
They have had to reduce the arrears and give out a new assesment.

Then we had the conversation all over again about a "suitable agreement".

Tell them you want a reassesment done from when you rang them about the son working fulltime and that it needs to be on CSA2.

work out your arrears and assesment and start the 52 weeks pay back from your new assesment.
They will try to make more from you each week for the arrears if you get a reduced assesment amount..stick to your guns and tell them that you have 52 weeks to pay it within.

Email them and record your conversations.

pd001

1 year = 52 weeks

2 years (the csa payment steer which is NOT specified in law) = 104 weeks

kelloggs36

plinky1 wrote: »

Yes my OH was paying an assesment amount and an amount of arrears per week.

CSA decided this was not enough and demanded more arrears per week.

OH just could not afford the first request never mind the second.

Spoke to CSA and requested a "suitable aggreement".

You will see in their guidline on their site and in their leaflets that it actually states:
"We will work to help Non Resident Parents (NRP) meet their financial responsibilities for their children. In some circumstances it may be possible to negotiate an agreement that will offer a suitable payment option to repay the arrears".

OH stated that as they told him they needed to have this debt repaid within 2 years they still would if they lowered the amount of arrears each week to XYZ plus the assesment amount added that by his calculations the arears would in fact be paid back in 49 weeks.

The first CSA worker we had became quite treatening saying "do you realise I can take 40% if I want to".
OH said "do you realise that I told you I was recording this conversation and I have asked for help and a suitable agreement as stated on your website. As the CSA just sent me a letter TELLING me what to pay, I do not find that "suitable".
They reduced it a little, but it was better than nothing.

Then we found out that for three years they had not included one of the other relevant children in our house hold.
They have had to reduce the arrears and give out a new assesment.

Then we had the conversation all over again about a "suitable agreement".

Tell them you want a reassesment done from when you rang them about the son working fulltime and that it needs to be on CSA2. that won't happen as this case is CS1 - it won't be converted to CS2 under those circumstances.

work out your arrears and assesment and start the 52 weeks pay back from your new assesment.
They will try to make more from you each week for the arrears if you get a reduced assesment amount..stick to your guns and tell them that you have 52 weeks to pay it within.

Email them and record your conversations.

............................................................................................

plinky1

i am sorry your message did not show up it was just a long row of dots!!!

blimey40

The answer given is in red