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CSA mess!!!
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grass_is_greener
Posts: 87 Forumite
I am after help and advice for my partner please.
He has changed jobs a few times, been out of work etc so the CSA have had to recalculate (it's taken since May last year).
In November, he was told that he had overpaid by nearly £2000 and that they would be crediting his account by £1100 because they had kept the last years payments and not forwarded them on to the ex.
He waited and waited for this refund, it never appeared.
Then last week he received a phone call to say they had miscalculated and he actually owed money and was in arrears (hard to understand as he has always paid and even paid while he was out of work).
The paperwork came through today and it starts with the payments owed since 2007. It then gives the payments he has made to them since 2008, prior to that he paid by standing order direct to his ex (child was born in 2004 and he has paid ever since). So there is a year of payments they are calculating as arrears but it was before the direct standing order was set up to the CSA. He phoned them today but they say, the money he paid doesn't count as it was directly to his ex??!!! So he therefore has to pay again??!!
I really cannot believe this as it was a choice at the time how to pay, he chose to pay direct as it was easier to cut out the middle man, they now say those payments (that they had decided on) don't count?!!!
We are all sick and tired of the incompetence of the CSA, this has been going on for years and they just never seem to get it right. He wants to pay but we cannot afford to overpay either. He also pays for personal tuition and holidays for his child but now, he is thinking of stopping that as well and just doing it through the CSA as we are always the ones out of pocket. Where can he go from here? How does he complain as this is getting beyond the ridiculous. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
He has changed jobs a few times, been out of work etc so the CSA have had to recalculate (it's taken since May last year).
In November, he was told that he had overpaid by nearly £2000 and that they would be crediting his account by £1100 because they had kept the last years payments and not forwarded them on to the ex.
He waited and waited for this refund, it never appeared.
Then last week he received a phone call to say they had miscalculated and he actually owed money and was in arrears (hard to understand as he has always paid and even paid while he was out of work).
The paperwork came through today and it starts with the payments owed since 2007. It then gives the payments he has made to them since 2008, prior to that he paid by standing order direct to his ex (child was born in 2004 and he has paid ever since). So there is a year of payments they are calculating as arrears but it was before the direct standing order was set up to the CSA. He phoned them today but they say, the money he paid doesn't count as it was directly to his ex??!!! So he therefore has to pay again??!!
I really cannot believe this as it was a choice at the time how to pay, he chose to pay direct as it was easier to cut out the middle man, they now say those payments (that they had decided on) don't count?!!!
We are all sick and tired of the incompetence of the CSA, this has been going on for years and they just never seem to get it right. He wants to pay but we cannot afford to overpay either. He also pays for personal tuition and holidays for his child but now, he is thinking of stopping that as well and just doing it through the CSA as we are always the ones out of pocket. Where can he go from here? How does he complain as this is getting beyond the ridiculous. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
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What does your schedule say? Your partner is supposed to get one every year.0
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What does your schedule say? Your partner is supposed to get one every year.
He always followed their payment advice although I don't remember there being yearly schedules. The last schedule was just after the recalculations in November to say he had overpaid.
There is no schedule with this one, I think it normally comes a few days later. This is just an advice letter to say there are arrears. It gives the total amount he was supposed to be pay since 2007, but then the total amount he has paid since 2008 (the difference being well over a thousand pounds but obviously, there is a year of payment missing).
No arrears have ever been mentioned on schedules.0 -
grass_is_greener wrote: »He always followed their payment advice although I don't remember there being yearly schedules. The last schedule was just after the recalculations in November to say he had overpaid.
There is no schedule with this one, I think it normally comes a few days later. This is just an advice letter to say there are arrears. It gives the total amount he was supposed to be pay since 2007, but then the total amount he has paid since 2008 (the difference being well over a thousand pounds but obviously, there is a year of payment missing).
No arrears have ever been mentioned on schedules.
From the day I started, I got a schedule to say pay X from date A to date B, before date B I get another schedule that shows what I have paid prior and what to pay until the next schedule, other people I know who have to contribute get yearly schedules too, so I'm not sure why only on the internet folk are not getting schedule's
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grass_is_greener wrote: »This is just an advice letter to say there are arrears. It gives the total amount he was supposed to be pay since 2007, but then the total amount he has paid since 2008 (the difference being well over a thousand pounds but obviously, there is a year of payment missing).
Unfortunately from the date when the CSA first contact your partner he needed to stop paying his ex and keep the money aside as he would be accruing arrears whilst they calculated his assessment.
Then he would be able to pay off the arrears when they sent the assessment.
Having paid direct to his ex during that time, there is little chance he will be able to do anything other than cough the money.If you've have not made a mistake, you've made nothing0 -
From the day I started, I got a schedule to say pay X from date A to date B, before date B I get another schedule that shows what I have paid prior and what to pay until the next schedule, other people I know who have to contribute get yearly schedules too, so I'm not sure why only on the internet folk are not getting schedule's
He doesn't get anything like what you describe. Just change of circumstances letters which detail how much to pay each week. I cannot tell you why he doesn't get them, neither of us are aware if them.0 -
Unfortunately from the date when the CSA first contact your partner he needed to stop paying his ex and keep the money aside as he would be accruing arrears whilst they calculated his assessment.
Then he would be able to pay off the arrears when they sent the assessment.
Having paid direct to his ex during that time, there is little chance he will be able to do anything other than cough the money.
He was given the option of how to pay at the time though? It's nothing short of theft to take it again. :mad:
It is documented on his statements that it is 'child maintenance'.0 -
grass_is_greener wrote: »He doesn't get anything like what you describe. Just change of circumstances letters which detail how much to pay each week. I cannot tell you why he doesn't get them, neither of us are aware if them.
See post #5 , All my schedules and bank statements I have kept, just in case they magic some arrears, your partner may have to request his files, but be aware sometimes (as he does not have copies) he may also have missed payments.0 -
See post #5 , All my schedules and bank statements I have kept, just in case they magic some arrears, your partner may have to request his files, but be aware sometimes (as he does not have copies) he may also have missed payments.
He has kept everything from the CSA, he has missed no payments. He has all bank statements. They have sent him a copy of all that he has paid since 2008.
I've just checked and found schedules, I wouldn't call them schedules but they do give the weekly amounts which have all been paid (or in most cases overpaid as he was paying when he was nil-rate).0 -
My husband doesn't get scheduals every year, I don't know why some do and some don't but if OP says he hasn't received annual scheduals he probably hasn't.0
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justontime wrote: »My husband doesn't get scheduals every year, I don't know why some do and some don't but if OP says he hasn't received annual scheduals he probably hasn't.
He has letters but I wouldn't call them schedules.
I wonder if it has anything to do with which CSA schedule you are on (eg 1, 2 or 3).
The letter he had in November calculated the payments due in 2007/2008 as zero so I don't know why this has changed.0
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