On Incapacity Benefit but CSA thats depriving myself of income

Watta_4Cup

I have hypothyroidism which means I have chronic fatigue and tiredness. My doctor signed me off and the CSA stopped the assessment two children CSA1 40% in arrears.
The CSA changed its mind and carried charging me as though I carried on work and backdated it and I cant pay it because I am on incapacity benefit, I appealed which didn't work and the CAB helped me get a tribunal which also failed. The Judge ignored my doctors statement because the CSA says I never sent it them and said I had deprived myself of income. The judge closed the case and said will write to me with the findings.
I got a statement of Reason just sais "the agency had the right to make the decision"[sic]. There is nothing said about my appeal grounds that I stopped work because I was signed off by a doctor and nothing saying I deprived myself of income. The CSA even said I made a change of circumstances when they originally stopped the assessment because I enclosed the doctors letter which the CSA now sais they never got, Judge didn’t seem bothered about this. Something not right. Help !!!

Trent1974

It looks like you may be a victim of corruption.

You need to ask the Parliamentary Ombudsman to intervene. They can make a referral to the SFO to investigate, so have your documents and medical diagnosis statement available that proves you are on Incap & lawfully eligible for it. It looks like the CSA set a maintenance liability that is more than 100% of your net income and that contradicts even the CSAs own rules.

If you need money then get the media on side, dont use tabloid gateways such as [EMAIL="news@thesun.co.uk"]news@thesun.co.uk[/EMAIL] you only get an employee reporter with a checklist of questions. Try to arrange a meeting with a journalist with specialised knowledge, and agree your fee in advance before you being him in the loop with the ombudsman.

PlayingHardball

Hypothyroidism can be treated with thyroxin, you should be able to work once treated.

How long did your Dr sign you off for? What evidence did the CSA have of the medical limitations that affected your ability to earn an income?

I don't think we have enough information from the OP to jump to the conclusion that there was corruption in the tribunal and CSA decisions?

Trent1974

There might not be any corruption, but I see no other explanation and nobody else coming forward and offering a better explanation and a matter only the SFO can deal with. Its a complex fraud and involves highly specialised knowledge of CSA to unravel. There following extracts from the OP that stood out to me as being a potential case of corruption which merits investigation.

...the CSA changed its mind and carried charging me as though I carried on work (what income did the CSA use to raise the assessment?)

...and backdated it (to what date and why that date?)

I cant pay it because I am on incapacity benefit (NRP is on a prescribed benefit)

The Judge ignored my doctors statement because the CSA says I never sent it them (Judge accepted CSA hearsay when the facts prove otherwise because the CSA acknowledges receiving CofC - a contradiction in the CSA claim)

(the CSA) said I had deprived myself of income (on what grounds?)

I made a change of circumstances when they originally stopped the assessment because I enclosed the doctors letter (The CSA contridicting itself)

Judge didn’t seem bothered about this (Judge is supposed to rule according to points law and according to a set of facts - corruption)

Lack of help for this OP suggests something was missed, or its policy not to help NRPs save money.

CSA_Help

Watta_4Cup wrote: »

I have hypothyroidism which means I have chronic fatigue and tiredness. My doctor signed me off and the CSA stopped the assessment two children CSA1 40% in arrears.
The CSA changed its mind and carried charging me as though I carried on work and backdated it and I cant pay it because I am on incapacity benefit, I appealed which didn't work and the CAB helped me get a tribunal which also failed. The Judge ignored my doctors statement because the CSA says I never sent it them and said I had deprived myself of income. The judge closed the case and said will write to me with the findings.
I got a statement of Reason just sais "the agency had the right to make the decision"[sic]. There is nothing said about my appeal grounds that I stopped work because I was signed off by a doctor and nothing saying I deprived myself of income. The CSA even said I made a change of circumstances when they originally stopped the assessment because I enclosed the doctors letter which the CSA now sais they never got, Judge didn’t seem bothered about this. Something not right. Help !!!

Apply to the upper tribunal.

Your thyroid problem must be serious to get signed off work. It does take time to regulate the medication as its taken them nearly 9 months for me.

I take it you have all the correspondance from the CSA when u done your change of circumstances?

PlayingHardball

Trent1974 wrote: »

Lack of help for this OP suggests something was missed, or its policy not to help NRPs save money.

Really? Help is here for all. I just don't think there are enough facts provided to determine 'fraud'.

Trent1974

Do you have any other suggestion that would help the OP?

Trent1974

PlayingHardball wrote: »

Hypothyroidism can be treated with thyroxin, you should be able to work once treated.

and its great we have an internet doctor giving medical advice what the OP can do to solve his CSA problem

PlayingHardball

Trent - I've obviously touched a nerve with you.

I'm not an internet Dr, however, I am someone who has lived with the condition for 23 years now, Dr's are always surprised when I go for my annual blood test to check my levels that I'm on such a high thyroxin dose.

I work full time, I support my child fully without benefits. In most situations it takes months to regulate hypothyroxism, as above poster already stated, however, once regulated, a person should be able to continue work.

Perhaps there is more to the OP's disability then mentioned in his/her post - that is why I said that there was not enough information in the OP to determine CSA corruption. As I have also gone through a tribunal procedure myself, in my case no stone was left unturned. Reading back the original post, it is difficult to understand and disjointed in places.

Perhaps if the OP feels that an injustice has been done, rather then get into a 'thread disagreement' with me, you can come up with some helpful suggestions to them?

For example...it could be suggested that the OP request their data protection file (if haven't already) to find the missing change of circumstances notification that they provided to the CSA

It sounds (from reading a post that is difficult to understand) that the OP failed on not providing a coc to the CSA.

Also, (and I haven't been to this stage yet) but can the OP not appeal to the Upper Tribunnal as the first was not lost on point of law.

So....stop focusing on me and come up with some useful suggestions for the OP!!

Watta_4Cup

This was the upper tribunal, I wasnt there and said CSA was allowed to make that decision, the original tribunal I was there and judge saw DP file with doctors statement in it and CSA said they didnt get it. On CSA copy of my CoC the doctors statement was detached (staple removed as can see on their photocopy) and plased elsewhere in the CSA DP file, but I thought Judge was intelligent enough to see the date on statement and notice it was detached from CoC letter before handing out judgment. I didnt realise it till afterwards when CAB adviser saw it.

Playhardball, Im not in thyroxin, doctor prescribes dextrothyroxine is that not the correct treatment? & will thyroxine fix the CSA? Going back to work is not what the tribunal discussed, your point is?

PlayingHardball

As I said earlier, your original post was very difficult to read/understand. My point was simply that if your Dr would be able to regulate the thyroid disorder (as mine has done) they you would possibly be able to work and support your child. I wasn't being critical, I'm sorry your upper tribunal failed, why didn't you attend it? You could have pointed out the detached Dr's statement to the coc? I don't know what the next step would be after upper trib so I'll leave it at that. Best of luck with the thryroid problem