What Powers do CSA Have??

ragdoll24

I left my husband 4yrs ago due to domestic abuse.

I have been on my own now with my 3 young children and have worked all this time to support them (until a few months ago when I had a breakdown as he has continued to harass/abuse me since I left him.

I put in a claim for CSA when I left him and for 2yrs he ignored their requests and eventually after 2yrs they obtained a deduction of earnings and last year for the first time ever I actually started getting CSA plus an amount for the arrears he had accrued which was over £3000!. Well guess what, he has always hated paying for his children and this year left his job, rang CSA and said he was being supported by his girlfriend!

I have been receiving annon information in the post showing me proof that he is working self employed doing plumbing and maintenance and not declaring it or even registering himself as self employed. My estranged husband has many enemies including drug dealers who he has not paid so I am guessing they are on his case and hence the information I am receiving. He is actually making around £500/£600 a week!!!

I rang CSA to explain this and they were not interested and said there is nothing they can do. I also said to them if he is happily living off his girlfriend then why can they not look at repossessing his car to pay off some of the arrears he owes me, but again they said they could not do this.

Can I do anything about this??? I have reported him to HMRC about 2 months ago but have not heard anything.

DUTR

ragdoll24 wrote: »

I left my husband 4yrs ago due to domestic abuse.

I have been on my own now with my 3 young children and have worked all this time to support them (until a few months ago when I had a breakdown as he has continued to harass/abuse me since I left him.

I put in a claim for CSA when I left him and for 2yrs he ignored their requests and eventually after 2yrs they obtained a deduction of earnings and last year for the first time ever I actually started getting CSA plus an amount for the arrears he had accrued which was over £3000!. Well guess what, he has always hated paying for his children and this year left his job, rang CSA and said he was being supported by his girlfriend!

I have been receiving annon information in the post showing me proof that he is working self employed doing plumbing and maintenance and not declaring it or even registering himself as self employed. My estranged husband has many enemies including drug dealers who he has not paid so I am guessing they are on his case and hence the information I am receiving. He is actually making around £500/£600 a week!!!

I rang CSA to explain this and they were not interested and said there is nothing they can do. I also said to them if he is happily living off his girlfriend then why can they not look at repossessing his car to pay off some of the arrears he owes me, but again they said they could not do this.

Can I do anything about this??? I have reported him to HMRC about 2 months ago but have not heard anything.

Contact the poster 'Absolutely' following a baliff threat her NRP paid up in full in less than a week :eek:
For most others as you are discovering, it's a long drawn out process that may take years, you will have to be persistent though, as from what I read those that willingly avoid contributing support are rarely moved by the csa sanctions.
However I will sit back now and let the other replies tell you what you want to hear.

iammumtoone

I can't comment on the arrears that he has to pay, but going forward I do know that the CSA are unable to touch self employed people even if they are declaring what they should. Regarding the self employment you have done all you can and even if he does now register unfortunately you are very unlikely to get anything through the CSA.

ragdoll24

Oh dear thats all very sad, looks like my ex will yet again get away with it. I ended up having to pay a £1600 council tax bill from our marital home (this was a joint bill) but because they couldnt get a reply from him they come to me for the full payment, even thou I am now a single mum on a very low income raising 3 children. I complained to council tax and local MP but no one could do anything except they stopped the bailiffs coming to my door and sorted out a repayment scheme. So I have now had to pay all of this bill, just another debt my ex has gotten away with.

iammumtoone

ragdoll24 wrote: »

Oh dear thats all very sad, looks like my ex will yet again get away with it. I ended up having to pay a £1600 council tax bill from our marital home (this was a joint bill) but because they couldnt get a reply from him they come to me for the full payment, even thou I am now a single mum on a very low income raising 3 children. I complained to council tax and local MP but no one could do anything except they stopped the bailiffs coming to my door and sorted out a repayment scheme. So I have now had to pay all of this bill, just another debt my ex has gotten away with.

Please go to see a solicitor for your free half hour and ask their advise. I did as my ex said he would pay me a pittance of what he should via CSA, the solicitor advised me just to take what I could get and not argue as being self employed the CSA couldn't touch him. However all situations are different, I never even started a claim with them, ex has never been PAYE employed so that might be different for you. There might also be a way you can take him to court for the money he owns for his half of the council tax, you don't lose anything by asking the questions.

HoneyNutLoop

ragdoll24 wrote: »

I put in a claim for CSA when I left him and for 2yrs he ignored their requests and eventually after 2yrs they obtained a deduction of earnings and last year for the first time ever I actually started getting CSA plus an amount for the arrears he had accrued which was over £3000!

The attached booklet explains what the CSA can do if a parent doesn't pay. The first step if a DEO is not possible is to obtain a liability order. What happens next depends on the info you can give and they are able to gain about his financial position: does he own a house? Do you know any of his bank account details? Car reg info (so long as it isn't a business asset?), etc. https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=reyqUrbILoOV7AbV-YFw&url=http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/%40dg/%40en/%40benefits/documents/digitalasset/dg_198853.pdf&cd=2&ved=0CC4QFjAB&usg=AFQjCNGKymnnKEwYPoeTW8yj7BJcACoTCw

Like it or not, the CSA more than ever has it's eye on the fact it is funded by tax payers. It forms a big part of this drive to CS3 and charging - reducing the overall cost. Enforcement action is expensive and there needs to be enough basis evident to think an enforcement measure has a chance of success now before they will spend taxpayers money on pursuing that action. It's all about focusing resources where they will have most effect. So, if your NRP has no apparent source of income, they aren't able to locate bank account details and he owns no property, probably the best you can hope for is bailiff action after a liability order has been obtained, at least until one of those financial indicators changes.

ragdoll24 wrote: »

Well guess what, he has always hated paying for his children and this year left his job, rang CSA and said he was being supported by his girlfriend!

I have been receiving annon information in the post showing me proof that he is working self employed doing plumbing and maintenance and not declaring it or even registering himself as self employed. My estranged husband has many enemies including drug dealers who he has not paid so I am guessing they are on his case and hence the information I am receiving. He is actually making around £500/£600 a week!!!

I assume your weekly assessment was put to nil when he declared he was unemployed? How long ago was that? Pre-28th October the routes you had available to you to challenge the nil were either lodge a dispute directly with the CSA or submit a written appeal to be considered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service. You initially have one month from the date the nil decision was notified to take these actions, although you can submit a late appeal in the following 12 months afterwards. However, you must explain why your appeal is late. The later the appeal is, the stronger your reasons for tardiness need to be.

You have a serious problem with the evidence being sent to you anonymously - no-one can verify the source. Those documents could be falsified, they could have been illegally obtained, they may be doctored. You don't know and neither can anyone else. In short, they are no good for proving anything. And why would someone send them to you? If they wanted to cause problems for your ex, why not shop him directly to HMRC? Why do they need you for that?

Additionally, when someone is self-employed that headline turnover figure isn't their income either for tax or child support purposes. Just because someone may turnover £500-600 one week in self-employment does not mean they are doing so every week. There will be highs and lows, and weeks when there is no turnover (sickness, holiday, lack of business). Additionally, as best demonstrated by this post from Justontime https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63829057#Comment_63829057, there is a plethora of business expenses to then be deducted from the headline turnover figure. I was reading on the benefits board a while back that something like 4/5th's of all those registered as self-employed claim WTC. That does not make for good odds for your ex having a high income even if he was legit.

ragdoll24 wrote: »

I rang CSA to explain this and they were not interested and said there is nothing they can do. I also said to them if he is happily living off his girlfriend then why can they not look at repossessing his car to pay off some of the arrears he owes me, but again they said they could not do this.

As mentioned above, the anonymous source of your info is a problem. Lets just put the concept into a different scenario.

Someone keeps keying your car. You report it to the police, but you didn't see anything, no witnesses come forward, no CCTV. There's nothing the police can do. Then you receive an anonymous letter saying your ex is doing it. You take it to the police but it changes nothing as it proves nothing. You wonder why the police don't launch a big investigation, maybe surveil your ex, as you've given them this anonymous letter? But how would they justify that? They have no evidentiary basis to utilise such intrusive and costly powers.

Yes, the CSA have the legal power to request copies of documents including bank statements from financial institutions or to conduct interviews under caution. But they must have a strong evidentiary basis that someone has committed a criminal offence (knowingly providing false information or failing to provide information when requested by the CSA to do so) in order to use those powers. Otherwise it's just an abuse of those powers.

ragdoll24 wrote: »

Can I do anything about this??? I have reported him to HMRC about 2 months ago but have not heard anything.

You won't hear anything from HMRC as you are not entitled to any information from them, despite the fact you are the one reporting the offence. The tax fraud legally has nothing to do with you, so you don't get updates on how the investigation is going.

Your recourse if you disagree with the nil assessment is to use your dispute and appeal rights (mandatory reconsideration and appeal rights post 28th October decisions).

This post is long and probably seems harsh in places but it's best you understand the realities of what you have to work with. Some PWC's with self-employed ex's are able to gain success in getting assessments changed and debts paid. But most of them will tell you it took a lot of hard work on their part, that it took a very long time and that mostly it's an ongoing battle. You have to be prepared to invest a lot of time and hard work into securing an outcome, always knowing there are no guarantees.

angelsmomma

Sorry meant to start a new thread

CSAworkerx

No real need for long winded posts, If hes working cash in hand we will not touch him, An organization that is funded by tax payers is not going to take money that hasn't been taxed as income, that would be stupidly ironic.

You cant prove someone is working cash in hand until HMRC get involved, and with the abundance of people now working this way, i wouldn't hope for a quick solution, your arrears will remain on the system but wont be enforced until he starts declaring an income, which he will know, meaning he wont be going PAYE anytime soon.

and lastly, we again wont look at his girlfriend, PWC, NRP, QC's, all we want to know about in any given case. ( on csa2 )

jacklink

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