Advice needed is this intimidation by the complaints dept?

rippedoffnewwife

　
　
My husband and myself have yet again to go to our local M.P but this time they have even not acknowledged the M.P’s involvement, instead they resorted to what only can be described as threatening myself the partner of a NRP.
We have contacted our M.P as after paying off £10,000 worth of arrears and being told in two separate assessments that our liability will drop to £95 per month in October this year, they then decide to do a re-assessment which then jumped to £279 per month and you have guessed it arrears once again! Dating back to August of this year, we did receive a letter from the complaints dept stating that it would be sorted within 15 working days, or they would apply for an extension from the M.P you guessed it this did not happened. When I contacted the complaints dept I was told ‘the computer doesn’t like you being on the system and they had not even looked into it, they would ring me Monday - Tuesdsay (lol) received a telephone call from the staff member who originally carried out the assessment of £95 per mth, who told me that she failed to include my wages in the assessment in August 2008 and we should think ourselves lucky they were not back dating the arrears until that date, then constantly asked me if I would accept her explanation of the reason for the increase I kept on refusing and pointing out that in fact it was her admitted error so no I would not, her reply continued to be well I could add the arrears do you want me to add them? That to me is just plain and simple bullying me to agree that she was not wrong. There where many other issues and questions raised in my letter to the M.P I kept asking if we could move on to that other questions which she was totally uninterested in and kept on returning to arrears which she could add. What do you folks think of this? Am I right in thinking this is intimidation and I was being told to drop or else?

DX2

But as a NRPP your wages shouldn't be in the assessment in the first place! Tell them to go whistle.

rippedoffnewwife

yep I know but you know how they are on csa1 if you dont provide them they hammer the nrp anyway -we been there lol

DX2

rippedoffnewwife wrote: »

yep I know but you know how they are on csa1 if you dont provide them they hammer the nrp anyway -we been there lol

If it was me I would complain!

kelloggs36

Are you on CS1 or CS2? If CS1 then it looks like they have assessed him as s single person and so he got a discount - but they are not applying the discount because your wages when put into the household, means he could actually afford the higher amount. Technically they should correctly apply those arrears - and you are lucky that they are choosing not to . Would it have caused any harm to hear the explanation from her? If the PWC realises that the assessment has been done wrongly, she could appeal and have the arrears added back on again!! I understand your frustration but at the same time, all you had to do was say that you would hear her explanation - she got shirty with you and you with her - six of one and half a dozen of the other by the sounds of things.

blimey40

You need to clarify the actual remaining debt. The CSa won't complain if you keep drip feeding them money and I'm sorry to say you are a easy target. These guys will bully and intimidate, though many will deny this happens.

I would have even questioned the 10k arrears, but I guess you have done that?

I would strongly advise to get everything in writing. I know phone calls are quick and convenient, but they can deny ever making comments to you.

Get them to write what is owed and stick to it.

rippedoffnewwife

kelloggs36 wrote: »

Are you on CS1 or CS2? If CS1 then it looks like they have assessed him as s single person and so he got a discount - but they are not applying the discount because your wages when put into the household, means he could actually afford the higher amount. Technically they should correctly apply those arrears - and you are lucky that they are choosing not to . Would it have caused any harm to hear the explanation from her? If the PWC realises that the assessment has been done wrongly, she could appeal and have the arrears added back on again!! I understand your frustration but at the same time, all you had to do was say that you would hear her explanation - she got shirty with you and you with her - six of one and half a dozen of the other by the sounds of things.

We are on CSA1 and they have always had all my earnings each every time they have requested them in fact since 2004, we have always towed the line and done what we where asked, she admitted that she failed to include my earnings, he was never wrongly assessed as a single person, also throughout the call I did'nt get shirty or raise my voice as that is not the way to deal with things. I heard her explanation - she failed to inculde my earnings, I choose not to expect that as I feel that this is her error so therefore the arrears to Aug 08 are not at fault of ours.

rippedoffnewwife

blimey40 wrote: »

You need to clarify the actual remaining debt. The CSa won't complain if you keep drip feeding them money and I'm sorry to say you are a easy target. These guys will bully and intimidate, though many will deny this happens.

I would have even questioned the 10k arrears, but I guess you have done that?

I would strongly advise to get everything in writing. I know phone calls are quick and convenient, but they can deny ever making comments to you.

Get them to write what is owed and stick to it.

We have tried to clarify the outstanding amout, its up one day and down the next, at the moment they are telling us that it depends on the time of day of how much you owe??? (yep confused lol)
We did question the 10k but it all started 5yrs ago and we just did not have the advice at the time we have applied for my OH DP files (which they are running out of time to send) to see if the M.P can find anything to question them even though we have paid them as we have since found out many letters where sent to his old address even though they where aware of his new address.
I have requested in writing for myself and also the M.P so we shall see what that will bring.

Kimitatsu

I realise you are very frustrated - trust me there are many many of us on these boards who have been through CS1 and are frustrated with the system!!

It sounds like your case has had to go clerical to begin with, again an issue many of us on CS1 have because the computer system cannot cope with any alteration to the assessments, so this means that an already stretched dept is having to do things manually, which in this day and age is ridiculous.

I agree with everyone here, keep everything in writing because otherwise conversations can be misconstrued and actually I have always found that the people who work at the CSA are as frustrated as I am at the system and they appreciate someone who is willing to understand that the system fails and they have to adhere to it - people are always more willing to go the extra mile for you if they feel you are being reasonable and you appreciate their situation. Just an observation, but I have always tended to find that if I make it clear that I appreciate their stance they usually try to give me more information back.

If you already have a complaint that is still outstanding you need to go back to that complaint and push it along, going through to ICE in the next instance. That will trigger a full review so you should get somewhere a bit faster, but none of this is going to be quick - the CSA is just not designed to be quick!

I am going to play devils advocate at this point, for you to have had £10k's worth of arrears means that at some point there has been an extended period of time when there has been no contact with the CSA and no payments made to the PWC despite an assessment being made. From the point of the CSA they are there to enforce payment and as Kellogs has said they will have the right to include those arrears in what you now owe, the fact that they are admitting their own mistake is a step towards you, and they cannot leave the PWC out of pocket so as an agency they will have to make up that amount.

I am not saying it was not phrased badly, and I certainly think that you should get your DPA and FOI access requests in and sorted for a case review but equally look at it from the CSA's point of view. They have already had an extended period of time when they have had no contact, they now have an arrears situation again (for whatever reason) and they will have had the NRP and the PWC giving them grief whilst battling with a computer that says no.

Sometimes we all need to take a step back and take a deep breath before going back into battle!

My advice is accept the apology, accept the remission of arrears and await your DPI files. When you have all of the information to hand then go back and progress your complaint (as you will be able to prove what has gone wrong rather than go around the houses) with ICE and your MP.

Let us know how you get on

rippedoffnewwife

thanks for your reply kimitats, i feel the next step will have to be an ICE, as I totally still disagree with what they are saying the PWC has had over £500 per mth from us over the last five years so therefore has never been out of pocket in fact they are living the high life in a brand new house and travelling to flordia 4 times year (grandma still has some contact) so we can safely say that the child has not suffered unlike my daughters. My OH is not opposed to paying child support for his son, it is just how the C.S.A go about it they have lied, 'mislayed' information or not even bothered to do there job correctly resulting in arrears past and present, we have turly tried to do everything correctly which has gotten us nowhere. Just landed us more in debt through no fault of our own.

pd001

rippedoffnewwife wrote: »

thanks for your reply kimitats, i feel the next step will have to be an ICE, as I totally still disagree with what they are saying the PWC has had over £500 per mth from us over the last five years so therefore has never been out of pocket in fact they are living the high life in a brand new house and travelling to flordia 4 times year (grandma still has some contact) so we can safely say that the child has not suffered unlike my daughters. My OH is not opposed to paying child support for his son, it is just how the C.S.A go about it they have lied, 'mislayed' information or not even bothered to do there job correctly resulting in arrears past and present, we have turly tried to do everything correctly which has gotten us nowhere. Just landed us more in debt through no fault of our own.

Your next step is actually to stop dealing with the csa on the phone!

In writing only!
Send recorded delivery only!
Keep copies of everything!
Dont lose anything!
Build a paper file!