CSA help needed!

hb1

The CSA closed my OH case in August of last year, yet didn't notify him until October, meaning he had overpaid by 7 payments. Since then he has been fobbed off regarding when the refund will be made to him. Having escalated it to an official complaint, he has been assigned a complaints handler who has been looking into it. The complaints handler has just told him that, because he received a refund back in 2001 for overpayments made back then after his case was reassessed, that they are taking this money off what they owe him now meaning he will get virtually nothing back. How is this even possible? He was refunded back on 2001 because of overpayments. So how can they take that refund off of him now? His complaints handler seems scared to challenge the guy in Finance who is making these calculations, so keeps ringing my OH up, agreeing that what they are doing is wrong, but is reluctant to go back to accounts and challenge it. What else can we do from here? Its a substantial amount of money that is owed to us.

Crellow4

I would suggest that you need a full account breakdown to identify whether there were any arrears on the account at the point if closure.

jayjayuk

Get a break down of payments, but good luck! I asked for this over a month ago and still waiting! It worrys me how flawed a system can be.

hb1

Thank you for your replies. Just by way of an update, we sent a strongly worded email:
- requesting a breakdown of their calculations
- stating that we would provide copies of all bank statements proving every payment from the very beginning
- stating that EVERY ONE of their statements to us state that the account is up to date and has never been in arrears, and refuting any allegations to the contrary
- stating that we will escalate the matter to the Independent Case Examiner, our local MP and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman if we do not receive a satisfactory response within the next 24 hours.
- Finally, we provided a breakdown of what we believed we were owed, including dates for each of the overpayments.

To our surprise (and obvious pleasure) the Complaints Handler phoned the next day acknowledging receipt of the email, and confirming that our figures were correct and that a refund would be issued within 21 days. We have received a partial refund to date as this was money that they had held on to instead of forwarding to PWC, the balance is expected soon. In addition, because PWC had delayed notifying them of a change of circumstances and had not owned up to receiving the extra payments, they are going to claim back that money from her.