CSA claim against ex has been turned around to a claim against me

OhDamm_2

I started a claim against my ex husband in Mar 2009 for non payment of maintenance as I was told that the CSA were now able to retrieve money from non payers who were self employed.

I wish I'd never gone near them. They only got in touch with my ex in May 2009 and in Nov 2009 he spoke to someone in the Legal Enforcement Team and told her he wasn't paying a penny but he was going to take his daughter to live with him and claim against me. At that stage he rang child benefit and had my money stopped whilst they took a 16 week period (by law) to investigate the claim. They didn't correspond with me or tie up any of my constant phone calls to them to the case. They took 20wks and then told me that someone had picked up the claim, saw it was 4wks over the 16wk period because they had a back log and just processed it.

I had no correspondence from them for 20wks at which point they told me what they'd done and that they had already awarded the benefit to my ex the week before. They sent me a form to fill out and said sorry. I won't bore you with the complaints I've made but needless to say I was distraught.

He then put a claim in against me to the CSA. In the meantime I was asking the CSA enforcement team why they hadn't enforced the arrears and how they could just sit back and watch all this happen when they knew what he'd done and was doing. I was told, well we didn't do anything with the arrears yet because everything was up in the air and we wanted to see who the child benefit awarded the money to :mad:

They still haven't enforced the payment arrears from him and I received an assessment form to fill in on 27th Apr 2010. I didn't receive it until the 1st May at the weekend when there was also a bank holiday that week. On 6th May they sent me another letter telling me they'd assessed me at £17.83 a week. I received yet another letter dated the 6th May again telling me that they'd assessed me at £17.83 and another letter dated 6th May enclosing a 19 page document telling me who my employers were and what the amounts of Mar/Apr's wage slips were.

I spoke to them on the phone and asked why they had done all this in a period of 9 days when I hadn't even had chance to fill out the assessment form ( I decided to let my MP help me with it and I was stuck with the election so no MPs were sitting until
Fri morning. Now we're at another weekend and I've been given until next Fri to have this form filled in and sent back or they will take the money out of my wage with a DEO.

I was appalled that they went to my employers for this information because I was under the impression they went to them with a DEO and not before. I have never said I won't fill the assessment form in or pay the money, can you believe this, I'm going to be paying maintenance for my daughter who lives with me until they sort this out and I've never had a penny in arrears off them that my ex owes.

I feel like I'm being bullied and harassed and that they want me to panic and fill the form in without my MP when I clearly have the right to do it with him. The CSA then tried to tell me during this phone call I should send my wage slips in confirming the amount they went to my employers and were given without the assessment form as that can come later if I want to do that which they think is best.

I can't even begin to tell you what I was like on the phone, well I exploded, as you can imagine. Are they entitled to do all this in 9 days bearing in mind it's taken them 12mths to get off their backsides and start arranging court proceedings for the arrears owed to me? They keep telling me they can't offset anything too. They've embarassed me going to my wage dept and tell me that they haven't given them a DEO yet. I don't believe them and I can't get in touch with my wage dept until tomorrow to find out.

If anybody has any advice please help

PlayingHardball

Hi, I can confirm that the CSA can request your pay details from your employer without a DEO in place. The employer has to comply. I've had to complete similar for a NRP at my work. Nothing to be embarrassed about, your employer will treat it as confidential.

As for all the other stuff, I can't help but others will come along with some advise I am sure.

I will say that you should try to keep calm when you are talking on the phone to the CSA, all calls are recorded. I've spent many hours talking to them over the phone and I understand how frustrating it is. I decided to deal with them mostly in writing where possible, and send it recorded.At least by dealing with them in writing, they need to respond in writing, if you request them to do so.

Also, have you requested your Data Protection Files yet? I believe you should do so, there is a sticky at the top that tells you how to do this.

kelloggs36

How much does he owe you?

OhDamm_2

kelloggs36 wrote: »

How much does he owe you?

Over a thousand pounds in arrears and he should still be paying because our daughter lives with me. I'm not even going to start about how they haven't assessed him properly despite being told by a member of the legal enforcement team that she'd emailed her colleague to arrange an investigator numerous times for it never to happen

OhDamm_2

PlayingHardball wrote: »

Hi, I can confirm that the CSA can request your pay details from your employer without a DEO in place. The employer has to comply. I've had to complete similar for a NRP at my work. Nothing to be embarrassed about, your employer will treat it as confidential.

As for all the other stuff, I can't help but others will come along with some advise I am sure.

I will say that you should try to keep calm when you are talking on the phone to the CSA, all calls are recorded. I've spent many hours talking to them over the phone and I understand how frustrating it is. I decided to deal with them mostly in writing where possible, and send it recorded.At least by dealing with them in writing, they need to respond in writing, if you request them to do so.

Also, have you requested your Data Protection Files yet? I believe you should do so, there is a sticky at the top that tells you how to do this.

I know the calls are recorded, I've asked for all transcripts which they have 40 days to do because the person I spoke to refused to let me speak to a manager, refused to give her name and shouted at me to start with. I have no problem in being polite and courteous but what are you supposed to do when they carry on like that before you've even had chance to say what it's all about. She eventually got someone to call me back because she knew she was in the wrong.

I'll have a look at that sticky, I had no idea you could apply for data files, thanks for that.

kelloggs36

Have you appealed against the child benefit decision to award him the CB even if she is still living with you? Especially as they didn't even contact you to ask what the situation was - you sound like you have a good case.

OhDamm_2

kelloggs36 wrote: »

Have you appealed against the child benefit decision to award him the CB even if she is still living with you? Especially as they didn't even contact you to ask what the situation was - you sound like you have a good case.

I didn't get an appeal, they sent the case straight to the Comissioner when I complained that they hadn't followed procedure who decided it stayed with my ex and I'm not allowed to appeal that decision. They had no right to send it to the Commissioner, that was just how they saw fit to deal with their error. That's not how you correct a mistake like that. I'm now at the stage where I've complained to the Adjudicator because their response to my last complaint having ignored many others was to apologise for not corresponding with me and here's a £25 cheque for the cost of all the calls you made. I can't imagine why they think that might make me just go away.

I haven't and won't cash it and sorry is no good when they didn't follow their own procedure.

kelloggs36

Good to see you are fighting a clearly wrong decision - don't let it go.

LizzieS_2

Get your MP to help with the CB claim. Also get your data files for this one as it looks like you either have not received all correspondence or procedure is incorrect.

As an aside, there are many men who do have their children living with them and find it virtually impossible to get CB handed over - full history of events will help them.

For the csa, this is not linked directly to CB. Start an appeal immediately.

Are you also having problems with tax credits?

bdt1

You can legally appeal any decision the CSA make within 13 months of the decision - you would have to appeal 'out of time' and specify why this is so, but you do have 13 months. So, please start the ball rolling on that one, maybe NACSA might be worth a subscription, they are very helpful and well worth the £40 odd quid they cost

OhDamm_2

I sent the CSA the form they wanted filled in and chose the option to pay weekly by direct debit through my bank (filled everything in for that too) and now they've got round to organising payments but they've sent me a copy of a DEO through my wages to pay it monthly and they've already asked them to set everything up.

What was the point of giving you a choice of how you want to pay it if they're just going to ignore it. I feel like walking out of my job and I've been there 16 years. I'm so sick of constantly having to ring these people. Not only that they told me it would be £17.14 a week and now they've changed it to £24.00 a week because my ex keeps ringing them to tell them that I don't have my daughter at all so I have to pay the maximum weekly.

MY MP has written to the chairman of the CSA and someone left a voicemail asking me to call them as soon as possible in regard to the letter they received from my MP......I don't want a phone call I want it in writing. The best of it is, my daughter lives with me. I can't even begin to tell you how incredulous this all is. I absolutely don't want these people near my employers because if they can't get a grip and sort it now what kind of trouble is it gonna be once they've involved my employers. Are they allowed to ignore the choice you make on the form they send you?

I just have no words to express how I feel, I mean, what's the point in talking to these idiots