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another person with arrear's woe's
csavictim_2
Posts: 5 Forumite
firsty id like to thank everyone for any help, i've been reading a few post's and there seems to be a lot of help availible.
my problem is:
in october 2007 my ex contacted csa for maintanence payments, i stopped paying because she stopped me seeing my kid, yes i know this was wrong but as it was a cash agreement i did it to try and force her hand, anyway from the first wage calculation they made i have had every payment requested deducted direct from my wages from day 1 that way no arrears could build up.
in october 08 i received a bill for 700 arrear's when i contacted them they told me it was what had built up from day 1 of my account, i couldnt understand why so agreed to pay it, it turns out they had taken this 700 and paid it to someone else then tried to get it from me again as an unpaid arrear, this matter was resolved but im still none the wiser how i acruwed 700 arrear's. once this was sorted at the end of oct 08 i was told i had 0 arrear's on my account.
in november 08 i then received a new calculation stating that i must pay back 93 pw in arrear's until feb 28 2010. this works out in excess of 4.5k. when i questioned this they told me i must pay back my ex's benefit for the time between me leaving her and her claiming for maintanence. this equates to approximately 4 yrs. now over the past 12 months i've tried repeatedly to get answer's and explanaition's as to how i have to pay this back since they admitted they can only work from the date of the claim. anyway i've been paying out 660 every 4 weeks in arrear's and regular payments, my regular payments beinbg 47.50 pw or 190 every 4 weeks. this means they are taking 470 every 4 week's in arrear's. this money is apparently monies i owe my ex for arrear's, yet i've made every payment asked for since day 1. plus her benefit back to the state for the 4 year period prior to her claim.
this has left me with a deficit in my monthly salery in excess of 700 and has prevented me travelling the 80 odd miles to see my children over the past 12 month's, (i have another with someone else but that maintanence is dealt with privately). on the rare occasion i have been to see them it's simply because i have not eaten for a week, and that is not an exageration. to enable me to afford the travel expense's, i have asked repeatedly for them to lower the amount i pay each week to enable me to visit my kid's as this is having a detrimental effect on thier mental and emotrional health, both were very level headed and grown up for there age yet now they both have behavioural issue's, and no amount of fake arrear's can fix that, i have requested a full account breakdown and statement showing everything i've paid and every charge to my account. i was told in jan this year after 3 months of arguing that i would receive this asap, and suprise suprise i still dont have it, when i call up nkbody can give me any straight answer's as to how if ive made every payment requested i've managed to build up over 4 thousand pounds in arrear's.
my main concern of course is the damage this is doing to my kid's, both were very attatched to me now both have had me taken away from them. i try to call everytime i can afford to put mony in the call box but this is very few and far between, i do not have a mobile or house phone as i simply cant afford them, although the kid's are fully aware of what's happening as i beleive in being honest and upfront with them regardless of the issue. they cant fully understand the situation im in.
i cannot afford legal representation to fight this yet cannot get legal aid. i live day by day at best, and rarely eat 2 meals a day. my work mean's that i work between 45 and 80 odd hours a week depening on work load and during the past spring/summer months my work has tailed off emensly meaning im earning probably 400-500 less a month than i would normally. csa have failed to take this into consideration. now because work has died down i take home the mi nimum they are aklowed to leave me by law, 282.85, by the time i've paid my rent my council tax and utilities bill's plus my other childs maintanence, if im lucky i can afford to by stuff to take a packed lunch to work, but if i do this i cannot afford to have food in my cupboards for a cooked meal when i get home, ha ha ha, gotta laugh about it, it's better than crying ha ha, i have tried to explain to csa the situation they have left me in and explained that if i am liable but cant see how then i'll pay the bill but at a lower rate over a longer period, they said they'll look into it yet again and i've still had nothing, in my last call to them in layman's terms i just got told tough pay the bill.
they have been paying the arrear's they say i owe to the parent who made the claim, yet i deliberately set up deductions from earnings so i cant get into arrear's. so how can they be paying it to her? i requested they cease taking any monies till this matter is resolved and i got told no, we'll keep taking it till weve made a desicion.
i have now lodged an official complaint and am awaiting a call back once a brief glance over the account has been done. yet even the person in the complaints department couldnt see whats going on.
im sorry for such a long and drawn out post but i want to add as much info as i can. please if anyone can give me any advice please do, i'll listen and take note of anything said, if you you aint guessed im bloody desperate
on a side note my 'arrears' has meant my ex could take her 3 kid's, 1 of mine. away for the entire 6 week's holiday to a caravan park and even managed to put down a deposit on a holiday chalet using my money, yep you got it, imgetting kicked between the legs by the csa and ny nose rubbed in it by my ex.
i only work because i take high levels of morhine pain killers because my spine is deteriorating and all the disk's are collapsing, i ignored my doctor's plea's to not work, i do this because i want to give my kids everything i never had and more. now i feel the only option i have left is to stop taking the pain killer's and allow myself to return to my previous state where walking to the toilet was equal to running a marathon and i had to dose up on anti depressant's and sleeping pill's just to get through the day
my problem is:
in october 2007 my ex contacted csa for maintanence payments, i stopped paying because she stopped me seeing my kid, yes i know this was wrong but as it was a cash agreement i did it to try and force her hand, anyway from the first wage calculation they made i have had every payment requested deducted direct from my wages from day 1 that way no arrears could build up.
in october 08 i received a bill for 700 arrear's when i contacted them they told me it was what had built up from day 1 of my account, i couldnt understand why so agreed to pay it, it turns out they had taken this 700 and paid it to someone else then tried to get it from me again as an unpaid arrear, this matter was resolved but im still none the wiser how i acruwed 700 arrear's. once this was sorted at the end of oct 08 i was told i had 0 arrear's on my account.
in november 08 i then received a new calculation stating that i must pay back 93 pw in arrear's until feb 28 2010. this works out in excess of 4.5k. when i questioned this they told me i must pay back my ex's benefit for the time between me leaving her and her claiming for maintanence. this equates to approximately 4 yrs. now over the past 12 months i've tried repeatedly to get answer's and explanaition's as to how i have to pay this back since they admitted they can only work from the date of the claim. anyway i've been paying out 660 every 4 weeks in arrear's and regular payments, my regular payments beinbg 47.50 pw or 190 every 4 weeks. this means they are taking 470 every 4 week's in arrear's. this money is apparently monies i owe my ex for arrear's, yet i've made every payment asked for since day 1. plus her benefit back to the state for the 4 year period prior to her claim.
this has left me with a deficit in my monthly salery in excess of 700 and has prevented me travelling the 80 odd miles to see my children over the past 12 month's, (i have another with someone else but that maintanence is dealt with privately). on the rare occasion i have been to see them it's simply because i have not eaten for a week, and that is not an exageration. to enable me to afford the travel expense's, i have asked repeatedly for them to lower the amount i pay each week to enable me to visit my kid's as this is having a detrimental effect on thier mental and emotrional health, both were very level headed and grown up for there age yet now they both have behavioural issue's, and no amount of fake arrear's can fix that, i have requested a full account breakdown and statement showing everything i've paid and every charge to my account. i was told in jan this year after 3 months of arguing that i would receive this asap, and suprise suprise i still dont have it, when i call up nkbody can give me any straight answer's as to how if ive made every payment requested i've managed to build up over 4 thousand pounds in arrear's.
my main concern of course is the damage this is doing to my kid's, both were very attatched to me now both have had me taken away from them. i try to call everytime i can afford to put mony in the call box but this is very few and far between, i do not have a mobile or house phone as i simply cant afford them, although the kid's are fully aware of what's happening as i beleive in being honest and upfront with them regardless of the issue. they cant fully understand the situation im in.
i cannot afford legal representation to fight this yet cannot get legal aid. i live day by day at best, and rarely eat 2 meals a day. my work mean's that i work between 45 and 80 odd hours a week depening on work load and during the past spring/summer months my work has tailed off emensly meaning im earning probably 400-500 less a month than i would normally. csa have failed to take this into consideration. now because work has died down i take home the mi nimum they are aklowed to leave me by law, 282.85, by the time i've paid my rent my council tax and utilities bill's plus my other childs maintanence, if im lucky i can afford to by stuff to take a packed lunch to work, but if i do this i cannot afford to have food in my cupboards for a cooked meal when i get home, ha ha ha, gotta laugh about it, it's better than crying ha ha, i have tried to explain to csa the situation they have left me in and explained that if i am liable but cant see how then i'll pay the bill but at a lower rate over a longer period, they said they'll look into it yet again and i've still had nothing, in my last call to them in layman's terms i just got told tough pay the bill.
they have been paying the arrear's they say i owe to the parent who made the claim, yet i deliberately set up deductions from earnings so i cant get into arrear's. so how can they be paying it to her? i requested they cease taking any monies till this matter is resolved and i got told no, we'll keep taking it till weve made a desicion.
i have now lodged an official complaint and am awaiting a call back once a brief glance over the account has been done. yet even the person in the complaints department couldnt see whats going on.
im sorry for such a long and drawn out post but i want to add as much info as i can. please if anyone can give me any advice please do, i'll listen and take note of anything said, if you you aint guessed im bloody desperate
on a side note my 'arrears' has meant my ex could take her 3 kid's, 1 of mine. away for the entire 6 week's holiday to a caravan park and even managed to put down a deposit on a holiday chalet using my money, yep you got it, imgetting kicked between the legs by the csa and ny nose rubbed in it by my ex.
i only work because i take high levels of morhine pain killers because my spine is deteriorating and all the disk's are collapsing, i ignored my doctor's plea's to not work, i do this because i want to give my kids everything i never had and more. now i feel the only option i have left is to stop taking the pain killer's and allow myself to return to my previous state where walking to the toilet was equal to running a marathon and i had to dose up on anti depressant's and sleeping pill's just to get through the day
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Comments
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I have pity for you. Ive been in a similar situation with the CSA. *im a NRP*. Took me a long time to get it sorted out.
If you arnt capable of getting it sorted out yourself, then why not pop into you local CAB office. Or you could contact your MP.When dealing with the CSA its important to note that it is commonly accepted as unfit for purpose, and by default this also means the staff are unfit for purpose.0 -
This doesn't make sense in terms of the arrears whilst she was on benefits because she wouldn't be getting them - the secretary of state would. You need to establish the EFFECTIVE date of the case - they CANNOT backdate a case to before they first made contact with you. If she was on benefits yes, there should have been a case, but if there wasn't then it is too late now.0
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have they taken the amount you pay to the other child into account? (did you tell them you also pay maintenance to another child?)0
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the claim date was oct 07, they are aware of my outside arrangements to pay my other child, but they say that has to come out of the 282 they leave me with. but the mother in question is and always has been on benefit. she is a lazy useless good for nothing who dont deserve her kids, and is nothing more than an oxygen theif. she's had 2 more since we split. and has never worked a day in her life. live's rent and council tax free and complains when i say i cant come to visit as i cant afford the train fare or if i say i cant pay for the kids school clothes since i cant even put food in my cupboards. but anyway my problem is i've paid every penny they asked me for since the claim was made. so how on earth can they say i owe in excess of 4.5k? i have a complaint being processd at the moment, its just in its early stages but when i explained it to the complaints officers she couldnt understand what i was on about as they have made numerous mistakes since day 1, also in nov 07 when they made a mistake and looked into my account they said i was zero arrears. 3 months later i was 4.5k in arrear's. also they have been paying my arrear's to the mother in question, which i dont get since again ive made every payment on every calculation on time everytime. so i dont understand why they are giving her anything. as if i have paid every thing they asked for since day 1 any arrear's would only be to the state not her. and 4.5k cant be acrued in a couple of months i dont care what benefit's she is in receipt of.0
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If you have had no joy in getting an account breakdown, go to your MP and get them to request it - they will usually get a better result than you!! Ask your MP to get answers to the specific questions you have - ie the dates that the arrears have accrued from and at what rate?0
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I believe that you can request for them to handle maintenance for all your children, request doesn't have to come from PWC. So maybe you could discuss with your other child's mother doing it all via CSA so then they do take both children properly into account? You'd maybe need to work out how much that would benefit you/disadvantage said child tho.0
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it would be a disadvantage to the 2nd child outside of csa. also they cant be trusted to run 1 case correctly so there is no way i would allow them to mess up both.
anyway i had a chat with the complaints department about the arear's. well the rate they were taking it at. and i said to them that i know of a directive that say's they can take upto 2 year's to take the money. i was told that tthis was true and that i had agreed to them taking the arrear's at the current rate. which i never did do, so now it's getting reduced to more managable amount's
anyway after a short discussion it turns out that when they send you a letter saying you have to pay x over x months, usually 12 months, for your arrear's, you can phone them up and tell them you do not agree to the arrear's being taken at that rate, and they then have to stretch it out to 2 years.
also the child support agency cannot take more than 40% or your wage regardless of how much you owe in arrear's or maintanence payment's, the company you work for will be given a set amount to be taken from your wages. if that amount exceed's 40% of your wages they cannot take it all.
in short YOUR COMPANY CANNOT LEAVE YOU WITH LESS THAN 60% OF YOUR WAGES REGARDLESS OF THE CSA REQUEST. IF YOU ARE LEFT WITH LESS THAN 60% OF YOUR WAGES YOUR COMPANY ARE AT FAULT AND MUST RETURN THE EXCESS TO YOUR WAGES. AND ONLY PAY A MAXIMUM OF 40% TO THE CSA.
ie...last week the company took £330.66 from my wages for my csa bill, this happens every fortnight, yep that's £660+ taken by csa every 4 weeks, bloody marvelous. any how this left me with £282.85 (the lowest csa can legally leave you with). obviously that's more than 40% of my wage, so a simple moan at the guy's in the wage's department and another call to the person dealing with my case see over £100 returned to my wages immidiately. WINNER
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