CSA UP and Down, system broken?

supersavershal

Hi there everyone, my partner paid £34 child support each week taken direct from his wages before he got them, in october last year the csa said they were going to take £47 until May for some arreas incurred when he was off work sick (without pay).In December we had another baby (allready have a 7 year old).Due to christmas it was January when my partner rung to inform them of our new arrival, he was told the systems were down and to ring back, he did this but in the end we had to send a letter which was 10 March.The CSA adjusted his amount to £32 week, £2 discount for this new baby.We were satisfied to pay the £32 plus the £13 arreas which would total £45.The problem is the CSA is still taking £47 and last week took £54 (we dont know where this figure is from.The amount is going up not down, we have had no letter explaining this and if my partner rings he is told the system is not working and that they need to do it "clerickly" they also said the amount is worked out by my partners pay dept, my partners pay dept say they are told by CSA how much to take.And incidently when I had the baby my partner had 2 weeks paternity leave for which he was paid £100 the CSA didnt collect on this but when he went back in work they immediatly took £150 (dont know where this figure came from).Our heads are spinning with it all.He is more than happy to pay the amount of £32 and the arreas but we would like to know how much is owed in arreas and how much he has paid off, we would like to pay the outstanding arreas of in one go, is that possible? Would they send us a statement of the last twelve months payments, and how do we go about this.You can see from the length of this that we are very confused and the CSA dont help at all.

pennyjane_2

I know the CSA is a toughie, I have been fighting them for 6 years. We are now a SENSITIVE case, dealt with by a special department. The good thing is we have a dedicated caseworker. My best advice is keep complaing!!! Keep threatening to make an official complaint, follow thro, we did!

Eventually we were taken of the computer system and all our claculations are done on paper.
You can insist on a statement. And you can pay it in one go. The secret with the CSA is to be a nuisance, you don't have to be threatening, insist they call you back, get names, ask for supervisors names and complain by letter and they used to have a email complaint service ( use IT)

kelloggs36

What you need is an account breakdown which you are perfectly entitled to. Ring them and ask for one. It will list all the assessments (but not how they are calculated) and the amounts due, then the amounts paid and will leave you with the full amount outstanding at the end, which you could arrange to pay off.

The reason they took the high amount of money after the paternity leave was because they couldn't take the full amount at the time, so provided it leaves the NRP with at least his protected income amount, they take the full amount which has not been collected from future weeks or months.

N71

If you've been told its gone 'Clerical', it means its one of the many that has failed on the faulty CS2 computer system.

Last October, the government outsourced the clerical work to a company in Bolton. They took on staff who haven't had full CSA training, and they're really struggling.

Don't hold your breath!!

janiegs

The reason they didn't collect on the weeks he had paternity pay was that he didn't earn enough - there is an amount that his employers must leave him with. The under payment is then held over, and they take extra next time he earns more than the amount he must be left with if that makes sense.

If you want your assessment reducing because he is paid less then you have to tell the csa at the time. Once the lower pay period is over it's too late - your assessment can't be changed.