please help were desperate!! - csa taken nearly all Xmas wage

hitauni

hi please can someone advice
ill keep it short
my partner was court ordered to pay arrears about 5-6 years ago of £150 a month for about 10 years. then approx. 4 years ago an attachment of earnings was put on even though he was paying every month and the csa broke the court order and started taking 60% of his wage which he fought for 3 months and finally got it lowered to £200 in agreement with his sons mother the resident parent. this has been taken out of his wage every month since until 3 months ago when nothing was taken?? I know he should've rang then to see what was going on but hes a bit of an ostrich sometime and kept putting it off and as we moved in together in august weve had problems with rent arrears council tax arrears etc were struggling to sort out as us moving in coincided with me going back to work all my benefits stopping and trying to get straight with everything. I should mention at this point we have a 4 year old. the csa rang me to check that we are living together and have a child etc. they rang him last week and the woman said he needed to pay £200 that day or they would take £400 from his wage! he couldn't do this as it was half way through the month we don't have it! he was trying to explain things and she kept interrupting to which he was saying "I am talking don't interrupt" he said this about 4 times but didn't raise his voice or swear and she hung up on him! rude!! anyway he should've rang back I know but with Christmas round the corner and being hounded for all the other debts we now owe he didn't. plus he works nights and had to get some sleep as his shift pattern started again that night so he hasn't had time to. yesterday he got his wage slip and they've taken £940 of his £1200 wage! 6 days before Christmas! that's all the money he gives me for bills and I still have to put in £250 of my wage to top them up so were screwed!! Christmas is ruined!! can they do this? its not any kind of agreed amount, at most with the 2 missed payments (which wernt our fault) and this month he would owe £600. his son is 21 now and I have absolutely no problem with him paying the arrears he should he owes them! but this is ridiculous and im unclear on the rules (not that csa/cms follow any) as its arrears not just payments
PLEASE HELP!! its the weekend and we cant even ring them!!
does the fact we have a child make a diffence or our rent??

HoneyNutLoop

hitauni wrote: »

hi please can someone advice
ill keep it short
my partner was court ordered to pay arrears about 5-6 years ago of £150 a month for about 10 years. then approx. 4 years ago an attachment of earnings was put on even though he was paying every month and the csa broke the court order and started taking 60% of his wage which he fought for 3 months and finally got it lowered to £200 in agreement with his sons mother the resident parent. this has been taken out of his wage every month since until 3 months ago when nothing was taken?? I know he should've rang then to see what was going on but hes a bit of an ostrich sometime and kept putting it off and as we moved in together in august weve had problems with rent arrears council tax arrears etc were struggling to sort out as us moving in coincided with me going back to work all my benefits stopping and trying to get straight with everything. I should mention at this point we have a 4 year old. the csa rang me to check that we are living together and have a child etc. they rang him last week and the woman said he needed to pay £200 that day or they would take £400 from his wage! he couldn't do this as it was half way through the month we don't have it! he was trying to explain things and she kept interrupting to which he was saying "I am talking don't interrupt" he said this about 4 times but didn't raise his voice or swear and she hung up on him! rude!! anyway he should've rang back I know but with Christmas round the corner and being hounded for all the other debts we now owe he didn't. plus he works nights and had to get some sleep as his shift pattern started again that night so he hasn't had time to. yesterday he got his wage slip and they've taken £940 of his £1200 wage! 6 days before Christmas! that's all the money he gives me for bills and I still have to put in £250 of my wage to top them up so were screwed!! Christmas is ruined!! can they do this? its not any kind of agreed amount, at most with the 2 missed payments (which wernt our fault) and this month he would owe £600. his son is 21 now and I have absolutely no problem with him paying the arrears he should he owes them! but this is ridiculous and im unclear on the rules (not that csa/cms follow any) as its arrears not just payments
PLEASE HELP!! its the weekend and we cant even ring them!!
does the fact we have a child make a diffence or our rent??

OK, firstly, you can ring them. They are open from 9am til 5pm on Saturday

Secondly, whether or not they can take that much is down to your protected earnings rate/proportion. How much that is depends on what scheme you're partner was on at the time his case closed, as he is now paying arrears only, rather than arrears and ongoing maintenance.

On the 2003 scheme, the figure would be a fixed amount based on 60% of the blast earnings information provided to the CSA. On 1993 scheme, it would be the same as the exempt income figure used in his last maintenance assessment, unless you'd asked them since the case closure to bring the figure up to date, and provided them with the info/evidence they would need to be able to do that.

So, first you need to find the latest DEO letter they have sent you and see what the protected earnings amount is. If they have left you with less than that figure call them and your partner's employer and point out the terms of the DEO haven't benn complied with. You need to bare in mind the CSA probably don't have this money yet, your partner's employer get a very generous timescale to transfer the money to the CSA, and many will hold onto the deduction til the last possible minute. The CSA wont refund money they haven't yet got, so if your partner's employer still have the money and the CSA agree a mistake has been made, the fastest way to get it back is for your partner's employer to give back the amount that shouldn't have been taken. Obviously, if the employer has already transferred the money, it would be up to the CSA to send any refund.

If the amount they have left is the same or more than the protected earnings amount, the only thing you can do is call the CSA and try to negotiate.

You say 3 months ago nothing was taken. Do you mean just for one month, or nothing has been taken for the last 3 months? Because if this is month 4, then you'd be owing £800 at this point anyway to maintain the £200 a month agreement.

hitauni

Thanks honeynutloop im not sure of a couple of things like what scheme he was on, ill have to ask him when he gets up (as he worked last night) an ill wake him early so he can ring them. They havent taken any this would be the 3rd month so we would be owing £600 as of the 24th dec Your info is great thank you ill get onto it soon as hes up.

FBaby

It sounds like he really needs to get to grips with his payments as clearly he has a history of messing about. If csa didn't take money for 2 months, but he knew that it was an error, why did he spend that money? I can imagine that it is a blow that he has been hit by this over payment, but he can't keep on ignoring things and then cry that he 'should have'... It is totally unfair on you that you should be left with the stress of it all. I would have a very serious talk to him about it. How much more has he got to pay?

PreludeForTimeFeelers

One thing to point out with a deduction from earnings is that it isn't the CSA taking the money from his wages - it's his employer. If the employer doesn't make a deduction, then they'll usually try to make up the shortfall the next month.

It sounds as though this employer might have missed a couple of deductions and then tried to bring it up to date, ignoring the protected earnings amount. He definitely needs to notify the CSA asap, because if that payment gets sent to the CSA then there's a good chance he'll not get it back due to the arrears, the system would automatically allocate them to the parent with care.