Absolutely Heartless

shelfy_2

November 27th 1985.
Due to a negligent driver I was critically injured in a road traffic accident where I sustained a severe head injury resulting me being in a coma for 6 weeks, the following high court case for personal injury took 9 years resulting in an out of court settlement compensating me for my injuries and future loss of earnings, I have been working in a supermarket on a very low wage ever since.
In 1992 I started a relationship which unfortunately only lasted 2 years (due to my stress from the on going court case) and ended in 1994 just after I received my personal injury compensation, 3 months later I was informed I was to be a father.
I fully accepted my responsibilities to being a father and paid whatever I could afford from a then £11,000 salary.
The Child Support Agency got involved and ignored the fact my housing cost's were very low due to my compensation and began to financially crucify me, they said and keep saying "because you put your compensation in to your property, it is no longer classed as compensation" .........what else do you do with compensation when you are struggling to pay your bills?
My salary has never been more than £14,000 (as of now) yet the Child Support Agency have taken from me well over £27,000 so far.
I have taken out loans, sold all what shares I had ,used all the inheritence I had from my late grandfather and my great aunt, depleted what savings I had, borrowed money from my mother and re-mortgaged my house to as much as my wage would allow.
I am now very much in debt and have constant thoughts life is not worth living, all because the money that I was awarded by the courts after a 9 year battle to help make my life easier has never been taken in to consideration for that purpose, though I brought this to their attention from the start 12 years ago and countless times since.
I find it disgraceful that so much has been taken from me, totally and only due to the personal injury compensation I received after a 9 year court case, then only to learn that The Child Support Agency would be staking a claim to it, even though it was my personal injury and not their's!

TheWaltons_3

Oh dear.. how awful.. but why did you have to tell them your housing costs were due to compensation? It's not like you won the lottery.. you were ill and got this from an accident.

How come you have paid them 27k?

Do you see your child? (Irrelevant to the CSA anyways)

kelloggs36

How have they used the compensation? Did they add it to your income, or deduct it from your housing costs? Can you elaborate a little in terms of how your assessment was worked out and the figures they used?

daisy_doughnut_2

hi there
i know that the CSA can make people miserable but please dont let it continue to pull you down i am presuming that the mother is on welfare for it to go through the CSA if she isnt are you on good term can you not talk to her?
how often do you have your child an travel costs are all these taken in to account?
the comment you made about life not worth living made me quiet sad ive been there before for other reasons
there are csa workers on here that im sure can help you out incase you have or the csa have missed something

take care

DD x

shelfy_2

£27,000 is the amount give or take the odd pound that they have taken direct from my wage over the last 12 years, this being the reason for my said actions (loans,borrowing) just so I could survive and pay my bills.
Informing the csa about my compensation was not down to me, any guesses as to who? (not that difficult to work out).
I saw my daughter every week for the last 11 years but due to a certain persons influence I have only seen her once since last november.

TheWaltons_3

shelfy wrote: »

£27,000 is the amount give or take the odd pound that they have taken direct from my wage over the last 12 years, this being the reason for my said actions (loans,borrowing) just so I could survive and pay my bills.
Informing the csa about my compensation was not down to me, any guesses as to who? (not that difficult to work out).
I saw my daughter every week for the last 11 years but due to a certain persons influence I have only seen her once since last november.

I know it isn't much consolation, but you wont pay forever...

... can't you just stop paying, forcing them to take a DOE and putting you on the new system.. which you wont be paying so much on?

pandas66

£27k over 11 years is approx £50 per week, sorry but whats wrong with that?

I ask sincerly here, I more or less support my 2 lads and obviously pay more than that.

Ex paid £70 2 weeks ago, paid nothing in May and thats about par for course.

TheWaltons_3

pandas66 wrote: »

£27k over 11 years is approx £50 per week, sorry but whats wrong with that?

I ask sincerly here, I more or less support my 2 lads and obviously pay more than that.

Ex paid £70 2 weeks ago, paid nothing in May and thats about par for course.

On an £11k annual salary? He would only be earning £211 a week - minus tax, so not much at all.

After paying council tax.. water rates... phone bills...food... Gas.. electricity... TV Licence...mortgage costs.... !!!!!! is he supposed to live on?

shelfy_2

It is because I am on the old rules assessment, they take your housing costs in to consideration leave you an amount to live on and take whats left!unfortunately because of my very low housing costs they took amounts I could no way afford to pay which changed on a regular basis, some months leaving me with a little over £500 (and sometimes less) in which everything had to come out of.
I was on anti-depressants during my 9 year court case due to thoughts and feelings of total despair, I often revert back to those feelings even now, but fortunately as I am a father I cannot let them take hold of me.

kelloggs36

They have acted correctly. As you paid off a large chunk of your mortgage, it left you with a higher Assessable Income. As TheWaltons says, are you on good terms with your ex in that you can come to a private arrangement? From your posts it seems not, but it is worth asking. Had you put the money into a savings account, the CSA would only have been able to consider the interest you earned on it and added it to your net income. Were you single at the time that the assessment was made? And if so, what were your housing costs in relation to your income? Just asking because if you were single (or have a partner but have no children in the household), then housing costs can be capped at 50% of your net income regardless of how high they are.

kelloggs36

If you want you can PM me and I can check the figures used in the assessment to see if they were right in law?