Taking legal action against the CSA

michelefauk

Hi
Please bear with me as I havent posted here before! Does anyone have any experience of the above? The very short story is that my ex owes £22000 in unpaid maintenance for the last 14 years (he has never made a single payment in fact) for either of our 2 children and despite me always keeping the CSA up to date with his whereabouts, employers, etc they have failed to collect any of the arrears. They have said he can pay the arrears off over the next 39 years (my daughter would be 54 by then!) but he still hasnt paid .I recently took legal advice which was that I had a very good case for negligence on the part of the CSA and things are progressing via my solicitors. Does anyone else have experience of a similar situation? . Any advice welcome!

System

Just curious but is your ex a job hopper or self employed? Both are notoriously difficult to get money from though the CSA do have to option of calling in the debt collectors who can confiscate goods to the value of what he owes plus their costs.

I haven't heard of any case of taking the CSA to court but what about taking your ex to court yourself?

Prudent

I have no personal experience, but my sister took them to court and won. Her ex owned several properties in an expensive which he rented out and which gave him a good income. He never paid child support. When the csa tightened the screws on him, he 'gave' the flats to his adult son from a previous marriage and moved in with the son and both lived a lavish lifestyle on the 'son's' income. The csa decided he had no personal income and made him pay £5 per week.

My sister took csa to court (after years of arguing with them over this issue) and won. Her ex was ordered to sell some property and make back payment. Csa ordered to pay costs and compensation to sister. Infact this was all she got, as he died very soon after case and the son got the flats. My sister could have pursued the legality of the will, but didn't as she is well off in her own right and decided to let it go.

welshcakes

I have found it pays to write long letters to the CSA and to always quote the names of people you speak with.

My ex was a job hopper but I broke down crying to a Caseworker at one point and before I knew it, she rang me and confirmed they had secured an Attachment of Earnings. This is a great thing to have because it puts a legal obligation on the employer to deduct and send the money each pay day.

Also, once an Attachment has been granted, I was told by CSA that it automatically follows the absent parent from one PAYE job to the next. My ex works a cash evening job as well but it's just not worth the disappointment of trying to secure maintenance from that as the onus is on you to prove it beyond any doubt.

michelefauk

Just a bit more info: my ex is a job and house hopper! He has had about 30 jobs in the last 10 years. He has also sold 2 houses and made £15k profit in the last 3 years , which I told the CSA about at the time (his then wife kept me informed as they were divorcing and she was hoping the money would bipass him and come straight to me ), they said they could act to seize the proceeds, never did and he pocketed the money which has now all been spent. He also bought a house last year which he rented out, again I told the CSa about this, they said they could put a charging order on the property, again did not act in time this house was repossessed liast week. He now owns nothing, lives with his new girlfiend, no job, car, possessions etc etc.

Astaroth

As a government agency dont the CSA have an ombudsman that they are accountable to? Would be the first port of call before the courts if they do as there is no risk of costs to you.

welshcakes

michelefauk wrote:

He has also sold 2 houses and made £15k profit in the last 3 years , which I told the CSA about at the time QUOTE]

I'm suprised the CSA told you they could take this into account as they have always specifically advised me that it is ONLY earnings that count in the assessment. I bought out my ex from the matrimonial home but was told they definitely couldn't consider the £xxxx thousands I paid him as it was not earned income.

Prudent

If he sold his own houses in which he lived they could not be taken into account in assessing earnings. If he is a property developer then this is income.

Have you been down all the usual routes of involving your mp and the ice?

soon2bjobless

I had 15 years of problems with the CSA - had to get my MP involved to start off with - sometimes he paid then stopped and the CSA were crap at getting him to pay again (he was employed all this time) - in the end he got one of those orders (kind of like Scottish bankruptcy) so the CSA wrote and told me they couldnt pursue it and that was that - he owed me just over £7,000.

I complained to the Independant Examiner for the CSA - they decided to take up my case as even they couldnt get an answer from the CSA.

I was told at first that the most I would get back was around £250 - I told the lady at ICE that it wasnt the money - I wanted an apology from the CSA and for them to admit they cocked up big time to let him owe that much......

ICE were great - they would phone me once a month (at first they had a 6 month backlog and couldnt take the case but still phoned me to tell me what was going on)

After 18 months out of the blue I got a payment for £440 from the CSA - no letter just a payment into the bank! Then I got a letter from ICE saying they upheld all my complaints and a huge 18 page letter explaining all that had gone wrong etc - they said the CSA had 6 weeks to send a letter of apology and make some kind of reimbursement as it was their fault they didnt collect the money - I didnt get this in the 6 week period so wrote to ICE again and they got on the case - eventually I got just over £1500 from the CSA and a letter of apology.

I was very pleased with this and thought that would be that - then a few months later I got another letter from ICE saying they still werent happy with how the CSA has handled my case and were pushing for more compensation as the case had been so badly handled.

The final payment I got was a whopping nearly £2,500!!!! So all in all I got just over £4000 from them when I was originally told it would be around £250!!!!

I will post the address of ICE if anyone wants it - write to them and dont give up - they are great once they get their teeth into it!!!

lauren_1

Please post the address, my daughter is owed nearly £3000 over 4 years from the job-benefit hopping twit that the c.s.a seem to favor more than my daughter, why pay £5 when on benefits? he has more income than we do!!!!!!!!!!!!

cosmic-dust

michelefauk Good Luck!!!