CSA targets Good Dads assetts? This will severely damage your wealth & health

knight-on-the-town

Not for nothing has the CSA has been called the most hated and incompetent organisation in history - thousands of mothers and fathers who have had had any dealing with them will doubtless agree.

Firstly, I have great empathy with many mothers who have got little or no maintence payments. It is a disgrace.

However, just as scandelous is the CSA response to the slating they have been given. The threat to scrap the CSA has sent them into overdrive - the target are the dads they can trace - many of whom are exceptional fathers.

Many of these fathers have co-operated fully with the CSA but fallen foul of the CSAs legendary incompetence. To improve their dire performance statistics the CSA they are now fast tracing so called debt recovery. That their calculations are inaccurate, or appeals procedures in progress appears to matter not a jot. Court applications are being fast tracked to get the bailiffs sent in, bank accounts, frozen and just any other assetts dads have seized.

If you are one of the many dads who like me have been given massively inflated maintence assessment BE WARNED!! They assessed my maintence payments on earnings some 5 times more than they knew I actually earned so the maintenece they demanded I pay was more than I earned. Complaining is an excercise in absolute futility - they say 'Sorry we got it wrong... but we cannot change it retrospectively...If you do not write a cheque for £15,000 now we will take you to court, send in the bailiffs and if you still don't pay face imprisonment'.

Depite complying to the letter with absolutely everything the CSA have asked for it makes no difference. Such were the delays at the outset that I had to repeatedly phone them to get them to allow me to make payments. More bizzarely still they refused oint blank to allow me to make additional voluntary payment!

Any others out there found the CSA has gone on a 'sitting duck' shoot in recent months please add comments. This is a very serious issue for respectable fathers who are finding their assetts ceased when they have done nothing wrong!

divadee

As this wasnt a grab it thread, thought the vent board might be best for this.

chugalug

I would have thought the best way forward would be not to get the CSA involved at all. This obviously only works if everyone is prepared to be reasonable. Read something recently about a CSA worker having to run 200 cases and earning approx £13000 pa - no wonder they're in a mess.

jockettuk

if your on benefits the csa get involved as a matter of course .. even if the mother and father dont wont them involved

sunflower_2

hi knight-on-the-town

sorry to hear about your situation - the CSA are a joke

have you been making any payments at all to them or your ex?
the payments that you think you should be paying for example?

prob be a good idea to make an arrangment direct with your ex and ask her to tell CSA to drop their case?

thats of course if u still hav a good relationship ?

jellyhead

you have my sympathy knight ... what a mess - they know they're asking you for the wrong amount of money but refuse to re-assess it - that's madness! can you local MP get involved? they're clearly making a mistake with your case, i hope you can get it sorted!

the system seems to have many failings ... i know a man who has children and has split from his wife. they filled in all the forms for the CSA 2 years ago but the case is still pending. he pays her money every month and keeps records of what he's paid her, it's approximately what the CSA would be asking him to pay. she was in income support when the CSA took the case but has since gone on to tax credits so she'd be able to keep all the money off him, but the CSA don't know that, they think she's still on income support. it would be in their interests to sort the case out you'd think. they know his address, where he works, they've got all of the details they need and he's not moved house or anything, he's willing to pay - if they want to hit their targets then why aren't they sorting out cases like his instead of harassing you?!

knight-on-the-town

'Hell hath No furry...' as the saying goes. My Ex refused me access to my daughters unless I reconcilled the marriage... so spent 3 years tring to get contact orders enforced. She refused to agree to anything...has even barred my telephone so I cannot contact her and has quite litterally gaffer taped up the letter box so I cannot even post letters about my daughters to her!!!

She insisted absolutely everything went through the whole Court process to let judges decide and in case of maintence went to the CSA. The financial cost to the 'family' over 3 years is at a conservative estimate £50,000, and may be twice that!!!

The CSA have totally messed up and are desperate to save their jobs because it has been threatened with closure because of institutional incompetence at every level. Its true that many mothers have been sold short, but now it appears the good 'sitting duck fathers' are the easiest target for CSA retribution. In a desperate attempt to boost their statistical performance inicators these fathers are been fast tracked to the court.

What most people do no know is that the CSA has incredible powers which would be envy of many communist regimes. They ignore commuications becaused they can... they cannot be sued in court as the government has given them immunity from prosecution. The way the government set them up means when they take a case to the magistrates court the magistrates have no other option but to find in favour of the CSA. In my case the CSA officer told the magistrates that! In other word the magistrates have by Law to rubber stamp the CSAs application even when it is wrong! If the CSA claim one of more payment has been missed the magistrate has to grant a Liability Order. The County Court then has a secret hearing which the father knows nothing about at which the Liability Order is automatically converted to a County Court order which allows the CSA to send in the bailiffs and cease money in your bank accounts. Complaining to MP is utterly pointless. This is the reality of Blairs Britain

Spendless

Knight on the town - have you tried your MP? My neighbour has had a financial compensation given due to the mess up the CSA has done with her claim.

BTW- the CSA was set up around 1993 (under a Conservative government).

knight-on-the-town

Any financial compensation is almost without exception a token gesture ... if your lucky a £100 for the inconvenience of having your life and livelihood ruined. CSA apologies do not pay the bills. The various appeals procedures simply cannot handle the number of complaints recieved and people give up in frustration. The sanctions and compensation are for many a waste of time. the governmnent could have removed the CSAs immunity from prosecution but has chosen not to. Were the CSA not immune from prosecution compensation claims would be in six figures not three.
In November the Chief Executive of the CSA resigned because of the incompetence of the organisation... and on January 1st 2005 he was Honoured by in the New Years Honours list. That how it works.

It is true the CSA was set up by Margaret Thatcher but subsequent prime ministers have had plenty of time to sort it out out but has done nothing.

Who is more incompetent, those in the CSA who have been acknowledged as incompetent for the last ten years, or the leaders of the Government who know the CSA is incompetent but choose to do nothing about it?

Spendless

My friend has received well in excess of £1,000 as compensation due to the mis-handling by the CSA of her claim.

She had to go through her MP to get it.

Fugitive

If you haven't done so already i would recommend that you go through your MP.

In saying that I gave up and accepted the fact that my ex was cheating the system and I was an easy target.

Your case sounds much worse though and you should get the politicians involved.

I wish you the best of luck.