Child support nightmare

Mummyoffour73

Hi, im new to this so please be patient. Im divorced with four children, my ex lives with his partner and her five kids. She is married and is claiming benefits due to personal circumstances. My ex has only just declared living with her this last week or two but theyve been living together for years. I recently found out by accident he was promoted some time ago and didnt declare it, i let the csa know in January. Just when my case was nearly done, he declared a change of circumstanc-i.e. living with his girlfriend. The csa have told me his change 'trumps' my change and I now have to wait until August for the change to be completed. This means my son loses out 25% as he'll be paying for her children and any increase will be lost in the arrears beig spread out over a long period of time-so my sons doesnt get any benefit from the increase. Is here any way they can speed up the process as i dont think its fair? Thanks in advance x

PreludeForTimeFeelers

Mummyoffour73 wrote: »

Hi, im new to this so please be patient. Im divorced with four children, my ex lives with his partner and her five kids. She is married and is claiming benefits due to personal circumstances. My ex has only just declared living with her this last week or two but theyve been living together for years. I recently found out by accident he was promoted some time ago and didnt declare it, i let the csa know in January. Just when my case was nearly done, he declared a change of circumstanc-i.e. living with his girlfriend. The csa have told me his change 'trumps' my change and I now have to wait until August for the change to be completed. This means my son loses out 25% as he'll be paying for her children and any increase will be lost in the arrears beig spread out over a long period of time-so my sons doesnt get any benefit from the increase. Is here any way they can speed up the process as i dont think its fair? Thanks in advance x

There's no reason why it should take as long as that - if you reported the income change in January then they can get the wage info from his employer if he is dragging his heels.

There will be one new calculation effective from January, when you asked for the reassessment, and another from last week, if that is the first time he's informed them that he's living with his partner and her children.
I'd call them back tmr, and ask to speak to a supervisor - it shouldn't take 4 months for them to get new wage info. Also ask them to make sure they include any tax credits in the assessments.

Mummyoffour73

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Ill take your advice and ring them..again. x

PreludeForTimeFeelers

Mummyoffour73 wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Ill take your advice and ring them..again. x

If you don't seem to be getting anywhere, tell them you want a team leader to call back - they've got to do this within two working days. Explain that you requested the assessment to be carried out over 4 months ago, and that you're not happy it's taken so long.

Bluemeanie_2

If his household get TC's and CTC mention this as well. There are rules on counting them as income.

bugsy2009

if you can find out how to speed the process up please let me know lol. I'm now 21 weeks into a 12 week change of circumstances! I've never had a penny of my ex and last year when it was just about all sorted he went on jsa for 2 weeks and it all started again. 2 months to find him again and then a change of circumstances started in january. Last contact(2 weeks ago) i had with the csa after weeks of noone knowing why it wasn't finished I got told that the case worker has been off for weeks and its(with many more) been sat in a filing cabinet!
Now been escalated(whatever that means) but god knows when it will be finished as apparantly they still need more information. Actually got a call back 2 weeks ago but last weeks promised one never came so will ring next week and see if its getting anywhere.
Really feel like complaining after 9 years of cockups(lost 2 of my kids off the system) but doubt i'd get anywhere!

CSA_Help

Bluemeanie wrote: »

If his household get TC's and CTC mention this as well. There are rules on counting them as income.

The CTC is it not if he is the highest earner they are considered ?

pammii

Always ask to speak to a team leader or supervisor and get their name and always ask for that person when you ring and keep a record of your calls because they will deny having spoken to you if they fail to record the conversation. Do not accept their time scales, these are merely to cover themselves due to their incompetence. Keep at them because otherwise they will do nothing.

skibadee

Try completing their on-line complaints form, each time we've done this we have recieved a phonecall within 48hrs, and definetly always get the name of the person you are talking to.

quish

Ask your MP to get involved if you have no joy,personally I won't deal with them I do everything through my MP

Mummyoffour73

PreludeForTimeFeelers wrote: »

If you don't seem to be getting anywhere, tell them you want a team leader to call back - they've got to do this within two working days. Explain that you requested the assessment to be carried out over 4 months ago, and that you're not happy it's taken so long.

Im waiting a month for a team leader to respond, they now have until 8pm tonight! Its been passed onto the Hunt group then, apparently the highest of the high!! Im disgusted by the lot of them, they dont care!!