CSA overpayments court looming!!! HELP

dannyboy5777

when my sons mum started a csa claim I filled in all forms correctly. I stated that I have my son 50% equal share. At the time my sons mum lied and said it was 60 - 40 in her favour. They never asked me to provide evidence and just took her word for it. This was back in 2011. Only just at the end of 2013 when I brought the matter back up with the csa has she agreed to the 50 - 50% equal share. My payments have now almost halved. I have not paid any monthly installments for 3 months now and recieved a call today asking me to make payment. When I said that I wouldnt be making anymore payments until the overpayments were sorted out I was told that it would still be passed over to the collection team and I could be taken to court.
What I want to know is should they take my over payments into consideration due to the fact that my sons mum lied or just because i didnt object at the begining due to neglegence will I have to say goodbye to all my over payments and start from scratch.
Please help:mad:

DUTR

Because you have to wait for the new schedule, technically you are in arrears according to the current schedule and that is the charge you have to defend (and chances are it will be unsuccesful).

shoe*diva79

I doubt they would backdate the overpayment as you didnt challenge it at the time. Have they reassessed from the end of 2013 with the new assessment?

If your case gets passed onto the collections team they they can, and will, place a DEO on your salary and can take upto 40% before it even hits your bank acc.

PreludeForTimeFeelers

It all depends when they back-dated the change in shared care to - did she say that it had been 50-50 all along, or did she just agree that it's 50-50 now. Because they made an assessment based on the information they had at the time, that assessment was technically correct.
If they have only back-dated it by 2 or 3 months, and you've not paid anything at all in those three months, then it sounds as though you will now have arrears. It's unlikely that they'd take you to court at this stage, but you'd certainly be risking getting a Deduction From Earnings imposed.

dannyboy5777

they have reassesed the case and now put the payment as it should have been all along. it works out that i had been paying about £50 a month too much since the start of the claim. The point that I was making and that im holding onto is that she had lied on the original form and said the % was 60 - 40 instead of 50/50 as it should have been and that now she has finally admitted it is 50/50. which surely means that she has fraudently filled in form first of all.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:(

HoneyNutLoop

No, the CSA will not automatically consider that because she now says it's 50/50 she must have been lying previously. Care arrangements can and do change all the time. When you brought it up again at the end of 2013 and she now agreed that was the case, they will have taken this to be a change in circumstances and update the calculation to reflect this from the date the date you contacted them in 2013.

Let's put the scenario in a different context. Let's pretend your ex has said all along that the income used originally in 2011 was wrong, but you disputed that at the time and the calculation was left unchanged. In 2013, your ex calls and says again "he's earning more". At that time, you confirm you are now earning more. Do you expect them to go back to 2011 just because you've confirmed that now in 2013 you are earning more, or would you expect them to need proof that in addition to your admittance your earning more now you were earning more then too?

The simple fact is, you had the right to dispute and appeal the decision made in 2011 within 13 months of it having been made if you felt it was wrong. You didn't and in fact paid the calculation. Now that she has agreed there is presently 50/50 shared care you have an unrealistic expectation that somehow that should be construed as an admittance she was lying in 2011 when it is nothing of the kind. She is confirming things are different now than they were then.

Unless you now have some hard, tangible proof (more than just your statement) that she's been lying all along, the 2011 calculation isn't going to change. You therefore have no overpayments going back to 2011, as you paid what was calculated. What you do have is arrears from the end of 2013 because you haven't paid anything since then. Continue along this track and you will end up with a DEO.