Need advice re CSA and child benefits

pumpkin123_2

Hello,

I know there are many stories on here about CSA and child benefit and thought i would share our story and see waht advice we can get.
My partner has been paying his ex by cheque for the last 10 years until his ex got greedy and thought she could get more money out of him. She went to the CSA and ended up getting roughly the same if not less then he was already paying. She ended up getting an extra payment and said nothing. It took months to sort that saga out.
On 6th July this year the eldest child who had just turned 18 got thrown out of her home by her mother. CSA were informed the next day and they informed ny partner to also contact child benefit which he did. CSA stated they could only go off child benefit and continued to take money out of my partners account and send to his ex, although the child wasnt there and was living with us. Chile benefit took several weeks to even send the form out to us and several more to get in sorted. He was awarded child benefit from the 10th September 2012 and was told because the form was only returned at the beginning of august then the ex still gets 3 weeks payments after this. So because child benefit only started on the 10th september CSA stated that altohugh he informed them of the sutuation they can only go off child benefit and the ex would get CSA until that date. How can his ex still be allowed 3 months worth of money when the child is not there? SHe has been paid an extra 10 weeks of child benefit which totals £203 + 3 months of CSA extra. The child was not allowed an access to her things and had to be bought new things awell. Where exactly has the child benefited? It makes me so mad and we are so stressed by the whole situation. She has made hundreds of £ and not made to pay it back. At no point has she made any attempt to contact anyone and stop the payments, surely this must be fraud.

Desperate
p.s sorry for going on.

kevin137

It is fraud and there is N legislation that says the CSA have to use CB as the qualifying factor.

Raise a formal complaint immediately, ask for it to be backdated to the date of the claim, and copy in your MP stipulating that the CSA used a qualifier that is not written into the legislation. You may well want to try to make an appointment with your MP to sit down and discuss. But he is obliged to chase on your behalf and will get quicker answers.

It annoys the hell out of me and many others that the CSA continue to say the qualifying factor is CB, so what happens for families that don;t qualify under the knew system...??? It is wrong and you need to stand up for your rights with this...

nicky3

A parent does not need to report that a child has left home for 56 days, so 56 days from 6th July before any obligation to report change in circumstances.

Kevin is absolutely right regarding your child support, child benefit is not the deciding factor in such a case, I was in exactly the same situ, child came to me, unbeknown to me other parent continued to claim CB. This small fact changes everything, none of the normal rules apply if you are a 'competing claim' so no backdating, and the original claimant gets to keep the benefit for an extra 3 weeks as a matter of course (joke)

So I was in the same boat, it took child benefit 8 months to make their 'decision' to award me, all the while CSA are racking up arrears against me. When the mighty HMRC deigned to make their decision, the crock of s**t system saw to it that my ex received 10 weeks of child benefit, basically as a reward for dishonesty/fraud (I have a complaint lodged with the adjudicator and that has been going on for longer than I care to remember) It is an absolute sodding disgrace.

So, back to the CSA, they insisted that I must pay child support for the 10 weeks, even although they KNEW the child was in my care (their client had confirmed that to them) I just knew that this could not be right and I raised an appeal. The appeal was simple, because, as kevin has pointed out THERE IS NO LEGISLATION to back up their made up rules - NONE. So, I did not have to pay child support for the 10 weeks of misplaced child benefit and neither do you. What drives me insane about this is that there at least 2 other threads in the recent past with similar stories and the CSA just keep on trawling out the same old LIES! I have an ongoing complaint with the ICE because, despite my successful appeal, the CSA have DENIED any wrongdoing, so even with the FACTS in their face, they simply DENY them. They have tried to blame me - even went as far as to accuse me of withholding information which is complete rubbish, but basically they say anything except SORRY we were WRONG! I would like to gather up some names/contacts who have had the CSA bleater this utter rubbish and lies about child benefit being the be all and end all. It is a complete insult when you are caring for your child but being forced by the CSA to pay someone else to not care for them. Person after person after person at the CSA stated the same s**t and I refused to believe that there was any such ridiculous legislation (and if there was, it needed to be tackled and changed) and, surprise surprise, I was eventually able to establish that THERE IS NO SUCH LEGISLATION. yet you, and so many others still have to listen to this complete made up crap!! This is the s**t we pay taxes for!! My MP could not care less, basically told me to make my complaints and get over it!