CSA Miscalculation on account statement

stella40

I would welcome any views on the following...

I pay two lots of CSA, one is to a non working mum and the other is to a mum who works full time. Last August I started paying the working mum direct, as the CSA were messing her about with my payments.

I recently recieved a letter off the CSA saying that due to this change in circumstances I owe them over nine hundred pounds.

I challenged this as I found it incredible that in a few months I could manage to get in arrears of this amount. I asked them for a breakdown of all the payments that I had made over the last seven years or so.

They informed me that because I was paying privately, the "system" did not recognise this, and it assumed that I had no other children to whom I was making payments. It had therefore increased the payments to the non working mum (i.e. the treasurey).

I got this sorted out with them, but they then told me that I still owed them the nine hundred pounds.

They sent me a child maintenance account statement. This showed all the payments I should have made over the last seven years (on a weekly basis) and all the payments that I had made (on a monthly basis).

There was then a summary of these two totals which showed I had a short fall in my payments of £940.

The unbelievable thing is that when they had calculated the total amount I had paid, they had missed a months payment from it. So instead of owing them £940 I actually only owe them £532 (which I still find hard to believe!).

If I hadn't had gone to the trouble of putting the 80+ payments into a spreadsheet and calculating them myself this would never have come to light. I've triple checked it, and got someone else to reckon it up etc.

I cannot comprehend how such a basic mistake could be made by a government agency??? Surely this should be calculated automatically on a computer system???

I rang them earlier this week, but my case worker had gone home (after all it was three o clock). I spoke with her colleague who promised she would pass the information on and would be phoned back the day after. As usual, I have received no communication back from them.

I've written to them twice in the last few months saying that I'm not satisified with talking to someone over the phone and would like to meet in person a case worker to discuss the case, but have never recieved a reply.

I would welcome any views or advice on what the best course of action would be.

Many thanks

kelloggs36

Certainly push for a Face to face interview to discuss how the shortfall has come about. From what period is this 532 quid owed? If you have been paying direct then they have no record as they would just assume that all was well unless the PWC notified them otherwise. Have you got a record of all the payments made, to whom and when?

stella40

The shortfall is to the PWC who I am still paying to through the CSA.

The account statment shows every monthly payment that I've made over the last seven years, so there are over 80 payment amounts in a table. A lot of these are different figures. (Don't know why the CSA can't ask you to pay the same amount each month). On the next page there is a total amount of these payments. This is the total that the CSA have come up with, but they have missed one of the payments that is listed on the first page. This payment is for £408.21.

I've worked out roughly that I am in arrears by about £30 a month for 5 months (£150). The CSA say I'm in arrears £940??

The main issue that I have is that they are unable to calculate their own figures. I just wonder how many other people have found themselves in arrears when they've paid every month.

The second issue is that even taking into consideration the fact that they've missed the payment of £408.21. My estimate of owing £150 is still very different from the £532 that I would still owe.

I've paid every payment to the penny for seven years up until August of last year when I started paying one PWC privately. I can only assume that this figure of £940 that they said I owed back in December was run up between Aug and Dec?

In December / January I phoned them a couple of times, but to no avail.

Like I say I've written twice, but the only communicaiton I get from the CSA are increasingly threatening letters.

Back in Dec I owed them £940, this has now increased to £1485.

I'm still making payments, but since I started paying privately to one PWC my payments have rocketed to the other PWC. The sad thing is she doesn't work so she'll never see the money.

I would advise anyone if they are paying to more than one PWC, do not under any cricumstances start paying privately to just one of the PWC's. There is no way you can make private payments to a PWC who are on income support.

CGG

This happened to my husband last year.
Although his maintenance was paid via the Courts. He was accused of having arrears, over which he was treated like a criminal when he dared to dispute them.
It resulted in us having to get copies of cheques - all going back over 3 years, and reconciling them against Bank Statements, and the Court print out of the Maintenance account. A number of these cheques had been cashed by the Court, but had not been allocated to my husbands Maintenance account.
We wrote demanding to know why these cheques had been allocated, and all we received back was a standard letter acknowledging there were indeed no arrears. In fact the letter stated he was 2 days in credit with his payments, can you believe?
No explanation was offered, and more to the point no apology for their incompetence.

kelloggs36

Yes, the next step is to get evidence of the payments made both to the CSA and those direct to the PWC. It looks like hte arrears have arisen to their inability to allocate payments made direct to the PWC which clearly means that their figures are out of date. If you can send them evidence of all the payments made and ask them to cross-reference them they should be able to then come up with a true figure.

janiegs

What you can do is get the private pwc to register a case...then pay her direct. This way, the amount that you pay her is bound up with the amount that you pay the pwc on benefits IYSWIM. The private pwc can ask the csa to make an assessment, but not collect it on her behalf.

You will be treated as if you are paying the private pwc the correct amount, but will be free to make an arrangement between yourselves.

kelloggs36

I think they are both already with the CSA from the original post, unless he meant that the private one was closed down. I read it that the payments went direct but the CSA case was still open. perhaps the OP could clarify?

stella40

Hi janiegs

This is what has happened. The CSA had a figure that I had to pay her. On her behalf (because the CSA were messing her about with late payments etc) I started paying her private, I'm happy with all of that there is no problem.

However the other PWC is not working so I'm forced to still pay through the CSA to her.

I have three children altogether, two of which are with the non working PWC. I was paying 25% on my income which was split between the three, (i.e. 8.33% child).

We contacted the CSA about making private payments and they said fine. Although they did not mention that the CSA now no longer recognised that I had three children and wanted 20% for the two children with the non working PWC. Preivously it was 16.66% because I was paying to three.

After this is when they started sending threatening letters because I wasnt paying enough. I asked them for a breakdown of all the payments I'd made so I could see when I'd underpaid. They sent out a statement with every single payment I'd made on it. At the bottom of the sheet was a total figure for all these payments (which was a lot!). The total figure had however missed one of the payments off which they had listed above.

The only conclusion that I can come to is that they had manually added up over 80 payments and missed one out. The payment was for over £400.

Although, because the money I'm paying is going to the treasury I get the impression that they will try to get money out of you by any means.