Ex fraudulently claiming CSA, child benefit and tax credit

bspm

I'm a little confused with this thread....if you were already paying by DEO (I will call it a DEO as this is what I know it as - Deductions of Earnings Order) and they increased it to collect arrears they would have to contact you first to ask if you wished to clear the arrears rather than increase the current deduction. You have not said if there are any children in your household so I cannot comment on the fact that they have to justify other children's wellbeing.

If you were not paying by DEO and they did indeed issue one to the employer they have to notify you first, again, even if you have previously paid by DEO if a NRP leaves a job and goes to another job for instance, the DEO does NOT follow him to the next job.

A debt Manager has to do a trace on a new employer, the only way they do this is through the Inland Revenue if they have no other information, obviously if someone tells them where the NRP is working they can call that employer and ask, most employers will ask for it to be faxed over or put in the post, due to data protection etc.

So, for someone at the CSA to say they don't have to inform you of either a DEO being put on your wages or that you were on one before so we don't have to tell you is news to me!

yan79

Ok so what happened is this. We paid DEO when my partner had his old job, he moved to his new job and it continued as DEO. We then decided to change it to Direct Debit.
When we found out his daughter was living away we cancelled the DD and told the CSA why we had done this. We then put the money we should have paid to the CSA into our savings account. So we missed two months payments via DD. In the mean time we alerted the CSA and child benefit office of her fraudulent claims. Then last pay day (end of Sept) my husband received his payslip and two months arrears had been taken directly from his wage. My husband got paid again yesterday and they've taken the same amount again this month. I called the CSA and asked what was happening, they said because we were in
Arrears they'd taken the money as DEO, I naturally kicked up a fuss as we had no idea this money was going to be taken this way. They said to us they had attempted to contact us via phone to tell us that they would take the arrears as DEO but I had no missed calls or voicemails. (The CSA have my mobile number rather than my husbands as he works nights) we received no letters either. I asked them
Whether they were allowed to take this money without informing us and they said yes, they don't have to give any notice as we have previously paid by DEO in the past.

And yes, we have two young children of our own loving with us.

bspm

Hi Yan

I am gong to see a friend today, she is still a Debt Manager at the CSA, I will pick her brains on current procedures for issuing DEO's.

This would have been the procedure when I worked there as a Debt Manager...

A payment was missed (as was yours when you cancelled the DD) you shouldn't have done that by the way, you were under an obligation to pay child maintenance and until the CSA officially knew that the child was no longer in the household it was still payable. An attempt would have been made to call you three times, it had to be three times at different times over a 48 hr period, if no joy then a system generated letter would have been sent to both you and your Employer notifying you of a DEO, it would have stated in that letter how much was going to be stopped and when. The phone calls and the letter were your chance to stop that DEO and make an alternative method of payment.

You say you didn't receive calls, im not saying I don't believe you but if the notepad entry on your case states three calls by three different debt managers over two days then they probably have made them. I know in the past if just one debt manager said she had attempted to make contact three times without any joy then issued a DEO, well that could be seen as a Debt Manager trying to get her stats in for that day...

Over the years I took many many calls from NRP's who called in after receiving a notification of a DEO to be implemented, they too have said they had not received any calls, the Debt Manager who had issued the DEO would be known to me and known to be someone who didn't like to make verbal contact, didn't like confrontation, in issuing a DEO a target would be reached with no direct contact with the NRP, most times when the NRP called in, or the NRPP (yourself) a different DM would take the call, laws of average I guess.

But the one thing I do know is that when a DEO is issued a system generated copy of that DEO is sent to the NRP too, I think you are fighting a losing battle anyway now, the CSA are the ones who get in touch with the Benefits Office to check if PWC is still iro benefit, they can also contact the college to confirm if the QC is still there, it does not take months or even years, a call to Benefits is returned within 24 hours, and a fax to a college has to be returned within a time period too, cannot remember what that time period is but it isn't long.

I will say again that any money that is paid by yourselves wrongly will be returned to you by the CSA as a lump sum when the possible fraud is proved.

They do have to notify you of a changed method of collecting maintenance, they do have to make sure enough money is left in the NRPs wages, there is a very complicated formulae that has to be done, (on the system) to leave a protected income, this will take in to account current children in household, a lot of T's to cross, mistakes are made, I know they are made but in the majority of cases the case is worked correctly, I'm sure there are many who will say it isn't! but like they say, you never hear about the cases that are running smoothly.

You have to realise that the CSA get many phone calls from ex families saying...she isn't in college, she lives with her nan, she is out the country etc etc etc , it has to be proved and that takes time.

You could make a formal complaint, there is a designated complaints dept. (go figure) at any CSA branch, you have said you have children in your Household and the CSA is supposed to be about helping children, they knowingly cannot and should not take money from one child's family to give to another.

Sorry if I've rambled, typing this has taken me back years, worrying about families was something I did a lot of, there are some good DMs at the CSA, unfortunately there are some bad ones too.

yan79

Thank you so much BSPM. I'm 100% certain I had no communication from
The CSA before they took this money from us. They say they called, I have no record of this, I asked them as to whether a letter should be sent out and the said no they didn't have to.
Our payments go back to normal next month but still it goes throughy paying this woman money she's not entitled to. It's crazy waiting for the benefits office for 12-14 months although I understand they have a massive work load.
I thought the CSA may at least make a phone call to the parent who claims and ask them what's what but they won't even do that.

I called the CSA and asked them got another benefit check just before payday and I was told they can't keep doing it as it costs them too much!
I've written to my local MP to see if I can get any help there with dealing with this case.