How to approach the CSA

fedupandhurt

After been unemployed for nearly a year i have finally secured full time permanent employment.

My account has nearly £200 of arrears on it which isnt much i was wondering if anybody could advise me on the best way of how to approach the csa regarding paying these arrears? i know they will want them it all at once which is impossible its a minimum wage job i read somewhere that they try to recover this in a 2 year time frame yet it isn't law and there is know legislation is this true?.

skibadee

Yes that is right.

PreludeForTimeFeelers

There's no real law in place, re:arrears. It depends on your assessment - with your calculation being 15% of net income, they will generally start negotiations by asking if you can pay the full whack of your arrears at once, then they'll ask if you can pay 40% of your net income until the arrears are gone. You can usually negotiate down to about 30% of your net income, any lower than that and you've got to put a good case forward for yourself, as it would have to be signed off by a team leader (and the case officer setting the arrears level has to argue on your behalf).

iluvfreebies

this is a very small amount of arrears on the grand scheme of things and I would imagine (without knowing the background of your case / payment history) that any reasonable proposal you make to clear the arrears will be accepted - you can make a payment by credit / debit card to show that you are willing to clear the debt - this also helps getting a lower than preferred agreement set up. just give your case officer a call - being proactive will be repaid with better negotiation.