CM Overpayment. Who pays?

sisterbluebird

Hi. My ex husband went back to full time work in Sept 2010 after a period of unemployment. Our only son lives full time with me. He hadn't paid a penny for his son by May 2011, so I went back to the CSA for help. Now it transpires that when he was working before, between 27 June 2001 and 7 September 2006, he should have been nil rated and paid me nothing, as his earnings were too low. The CSA say the overpayment amounts to £14713.54 and they will take it from the arrears since May and any future payments. Result- My son and I get nothing and a massive bill.
I received the payments in good faith at the time and think it grossly unfair that I am being penalised for the CSA's !!!!-up and my ex not picking up a problem sooner.
Should I be liable to repay this?

PreludeForTimeFeelers

You will be expected to repay this, but as it wasn't your fault the CSA will accept very favourable repayments from you, and will probably let you pay £5 or £10 a week.

The £14k that your ex has overpaid will probably be paid back to him by the Secretary of State, it'll all depend on what his current assessment is, generally the CSA will tell an overpaying NRP to just stop all payments for a certain time-scale (rather than refund them), however due to the huge amount here it is more likely that they'll give him a refund.

sisterbluebird

The CSA are insisting that I have to repay this and that as my son only has a couple of years left in full time education, they will recover it by taking the full amount of my new award which starts this month. They will not accept £10 per week.

I have asked them to fully explain in writing why they took 5 years to determine that my ex didn't have to pay. Also, if my ex thought that the assessment was wrong and he should be nil rated, why did he continue to pay me each month? The fact that he did private work that wouldn't have gone through his accounts can't be investigated by going through the bank statements that he has provided them for that period.

I feel that this is very wrong. An overpayment occurred that was not my fault, but the CSA's. I am being penalised for it and at the end of the day, there is a child here who is going without some basics and money for fun activities, while I try to support him alone the best I can. The Citizens Advice Bureaux had not heard of anything like this before and struggled to offer advice. Think I will ask my MP to get some answers. From experience, I know that a letter from an MP gets top priority in government departments.

EclipsedMind

Ofc the counter argument is that your ex had to survive without the money that the CSA wrongfully took. The fact that it was wrongfully taken is the key point here. It is his money and he has a right to it back.

You should be pointing out to the CSA that there payment terms are going to cause you hardship and try to negotiate something more sensible if it is too onerous as is. However you say you received nothing for a protratced period of time and managed like that so I suspect that has factored into the decision.

At the end of the day the CSA screwed up and took too much from Ex and gave to you. The money has to be repaid and the csa will do so and then will gradually recoup it from you. You had the gain from the overpayment accross the years and ex had lost opportunity on the cash. If you don't repay it then who should? Your ex should lose it? Or maybe we tax payers should pay it?

Personally I think things are going the way they must. I understand your angst as clearly things would be better if he had not overpayed but sadly and overpayment has happened and the only thing to do is deal with paying it back.



EM

kitkatt1982

This is ridiculous! Ok, you could argue that you had the money wrongfully and so you should repay it (or actually that your child was wrongfully given the money so they should repay it lol) as it's not the taxpayer's responsibility to repay your ex, but to be fair why was he given a nill assessment?? Every parent should have to contribute to their child no matter what their circumstances and you spent that money (I assume) raising your child so shouldn't have to repay all of it. However, it was down to their mistake and your ex paid more than he should have. You or your ex did not defraud the system. Don't know the full circumstances but if he was that hard up at the time he couldn't afford it surely he would have contested it then? Don't know how well you get on with your ex but perhaps as money was spent bringing up his child you could come to a mutual agreement that you repay half and he puts the other half down as contributing to his child's upbringing? If this is not possible, perhaps take it to your MP x

kitkatt1982

P.S my ex had a nill assessment for 6 years under old rules too, makes no sense!

PreludeForTimeFeelers

kitkatt1982 wrote: »

P.S my ex had a nill assessment for 6 years under old rules too, makes no sense!

It seems like there were quite a few situations where someone on old rules would have a nil assessment that wouldn't be given on CS2 - something that seems to be forgotten by some NRPs who bang on about how old rules is biased against them.

sisterbluebird

Let me explain in a bit more detail.
The CSA made an assessment and set the amount back in 1998. My child's father paid me directly not through a DEO.
If he really couldn't manage to make payments from 2001 to 2006, I believe that he should have tackled this at the time. Surely if he had asked the CSA to reassess the amount he was expected to pay because he couldn't afford the current figure, then he would have stopped paying until they sorted it out.
The fact is that he kept paying and never mentioned a problem to me. This is, I believe, because he was doing plenty of private work that didn't go through his accounts.
I don't believe that the taxpayer should refund him, but don't believe that I should either.
If there is a time limit of a month during which to make an appeal if you disagree with a decision, surely there should be a time limit during which you can dispute having to make payments full stop. If he had asked the CSA several times to reassess his case and they hadn't done so, then he should have ceased payments until they did. I think that he should be told that 5 years later is an unacceptable amount of time to now ask to be refunded.
My ex has been back in full time employment for well over a year and has only made this complaint now, because I have asked the CSA to assist me in getting him to make a contribution to our son's upbringing. I didn't go to them until May 2011, because I knew that he had mortgage arrears and gave him time to get back on his feet, but enough is enough.

Mark148

Your ex was paying maintenance in accordance with their calculations and requested a reassessment which wasn't carried out correctly for years.

The fact is HE REQUESTED A REASSESSMENT so rightly deserves to have all overpayments reimbursed.

If you want the monies you now owe to be written off then surely all of those NRP's that owe monies to PWC's through no fault of their own should be written off too............it's the same principle.

romanempire

kitkatt1982 wrote: »

Every parent should have to contribute to their child no matter what their circumstances

So even where PWC is wealthy (say a lottery winner) and the NRP in on benefits. And because the NRP has no overnights they would have to pay £5/wk. How does that £5 benefit the children? Especially if that £5 is the NRP's bus fare to go see his kids.

R.

EclipsedMind

@OP
Saying he worked privately is hearsay and not going to fly in any court so why should it here? Prove it or it didn't happen. Its easy to make allegations that support your position and in fact humans are biased towards seeking evidence that supports a formed opinion.

Injustice should have an expiry date? tell taht to all those wrongfully convicted and later freed.

Whether he has had the reassessment out of spite because you pursued a claim against him is irrelevant. The facts are simple - he overpaid and thus deserves the money back.

His ethics, behaviour and morallity have no effect on those facts and are merely being added by yourself to try to justify a stance taht is contry to the rules that have been deemed fair.

I think you need to just accept it and move on tbh.


I wish your child(ren) every happiness in the future and hope they benefit and enjoy a loving nurtured relationship with both parents.

EM