Arrears

afraidof

Hi everyone
I left my wife and 3 children in 1997.I was very stupid and didnt sort out the csa and one month they took all my wages.I stupidly then left the country and have been living abroad in various countries sometimes working sometimes travelling .I have not been in contact with my children nor im ashamed to admit have i been paying anything for them.
I deeply regret my actions and have last year reurned to uk to try and make contact with my children.Two of them are over 20 but the youngest is just 16.Ive just had a letter off the csa saying they have recieved an application off my ex for child support on my youngest child and asking me for details of earnings etc which i have supplied.
Now i know i have behaved badly and deserve whatever happens and am more than happy to pay whatever i can afford to pay but what i am worried about is that i will end up with a massive backdated sum to pay for the time i have been away,Again i realise its my duty to pay anything owing and that i have been a bad parent in not paying anything, however im frightened that as i have no assests and am working minimum wage i will end up in prison for any arears.I live in a shared house and am also worried about baliffs taking things that belong to other people in the house.
I want to pay off anything that i owe but want i want to know is will i be given an opportunity to set up realistic payments given my income or will it be a case of pay up everything i owe or go to prison.
I know i have evaded my reponsabilities for too long and am back in uk to try to put things right im not after sympathy as i dont desrve it,just some realistic advice as to how to procede and as to what is likely to happen to me .
Thanks

CSA_Debt_Bod

If you had informed the CSA that you were moving abroad your case would have been closed, as the CSA have no jurisdiction when the NRP lives abroad (unless he works for a UK based company).

I don't know if they would close your case retrospectively going back to the date you moved abroad. You should ring and find out, with all the details and dates to hand. If the CSA closed your case retospectively this would wipe out a lot of your arrears, although I think they'd open a new case from the date that you moved back to the UK and you would have arrears on that case.

afraidof

Thanks for the quick reply.I did not inform the csa i had moved abroad,if then there are arrears from 1997 will i be given a fair chance to arrange repayments with regard to what i earn or is there a chance i can be imprisoned for non payment .This is what i am most worried about .
Thanks

bigtone2010

From what I understand as I am also in arrears (although it was an honest mistake), they can only take a max 40% of net income. They also do credit checks to see if you would be eligible for a loan to pay them back that way, if you are not credit worthy then there is nothing they can do apart from take 40% of your income. dont make the mistake I made and assumed income meant earnings as it means earnings, child tax cred, working tax cred also.

good luck - least you are trying to put things right, be a lot easier to scarper again so good on you for facing up to it.

CSA_Debt_Bod

They won't imprison you because you can't afford to pay. Imprisonment is a measure reserved for NRPs who can afford to pay but refuse to. If you make reasonable offers the CSA should be reasonable back. I say 'should', that's the ideal situation, every business unit is different and every case officer is different, unfortunately. It should be more uniform in my opinion.

kelloggs36

I fail to see how they could possibly take all your wages as the protected income would have left you with at least 40% of your net income. if you earned less for some reason, then they would have been able to take a reduced figure leaving you with your protected income at the very least. Unless you had set up a direct debit??

Blob

Kellogs, I understand what you are saying is how it should be but believe me they don't leave you with 40%. They have taken me below the IS level as it was in those days. There are very few people in the CSA/C-MEC that understand what they are supposed to do and then do it with in the Law. They may well have put am IMA in place that will remove all of the alledged "protected" income!! It happens, and it happens where I work as the guys come to me for help!

CSA_Debt_Bod

If an NRP has an IMA there is no protected income amount in the normal sense; an IMA is put in place because the NRP hasn't provided his financial details, so the CSA can't make a calculation of what the PI amount should be because they don't know his income & outgoings. When there is an IMA the protected income figure is always the same, and it is based on what the personal allowance figure set by the benefits agency is - something like £40 per week if I remember correctly.

As Blob says though, some CSA case officers have no idea what they are doing and do not have a very good grasp of maths or much intelligence. I have seen a lot of cases where calculations have been done completeley wrongly and illegal deductions have been made as a result. This could be avoided if only managers would do checks on officers' work more often.

Also, the CSA is legally allowed to take up to 40% of an NRP's net earnings (in total, regular maintenance plus arrears). Therefore all NRPs (if they don't have an IMA) should be left with a minimum 60% of their net earnings, not 40% as stated.

Blob

So what you are saying is that they could have taken every penny in a given week?

CSA_Debt_Bod

No not at all, the NRP should always be left with at least the protected income amount. There is always a protected income amount, but in the case of an IMA it is very low, that is all. But the CSA can never take all of an NRP's earnings.

afraidof

thanks for all your replies
kellog they took all my wages back in 1997 it was because i had not been contacting them at all.I would still like to know as i am expecting huge arrears and only earn minimum wage with no assets ,and as at 40 percent of my income it will take many years to pay off arrears, will i be allowed to pay off ove ra long period or will i be in danger of imprisonment.Allso how will the csa asses my earnings for the 10 years i have been abroad?
Thanks