CSA and Child Benefit won't listen!

MoneyExpertFan

For the last 5 years I have followed this forum and seen the nightmare cases. Now unfortunately it's my turn!

My 19 year old son left his college course early and his mother did not tell CSA, CB or myself. I found out from his tutor in June that he had last attended in February. I called the CSA to inform them and they put my July and August payments into a suspended account whilst they investigated. My ex refused to answer the letter from CSA asking her to confirm this, and I have pursued the CSA for my money which according to CB guidelines should be backdated from the last day in February. As some of you will know it depends on Feb/May/August/November quarters with regards to when they stop CB payments.

However the CSA called me recently to say that CB say I am due no money back as they consider the course to have finished 31st August!

The mother has committed fraud, no doubt about it...falsely claiming CB, CSA and related tax credits. The college said they won't tell me about his attendance record even as his parent! All advice welcome from anyone who has been in my shoes.

Blackpool_Saver

You need to find out why he wasn't going to college, if was ill for example he may have still been registered as a student, the tutor could have been expecting him to return

MoneyExpertFan

No, there were no excuses...he just tired of the course and quit.

Blackpool_Saver

What does your son say?

13Kent

The pwc in our case also committed fraud as she was claiming CB for a child that wasn't actually living at home, and previous to that we also had the same scenario, the child was supposedly doing A levels but dropped out, but the PWC had applied for an extension to the CB and as long as this was being paid we had to continue to pay CSA. For the sake of the relationship with the child in the end we decided just to suck it up and pay and were just grateful when the time came for the payments to end.

MoneyExpertFan

13Kent, I guess you are referring to the Connexions extension? My son is too old for this, and if he had stuck it out until May/June when the course had ended then we would have had none of this.

I am owed over £1500 in overpaid CSA and I pay privately into my son's bank account as he is still job hunting.

Blackpool_Saver

This is a strange and baffling post. First you say PWC is getting the money, then you say you are paying your son directly. If you don't think you should pay discuss it with your son

jarhead66

I requested a C/B check back in October and within 4 days the CSA got back to me and informed me that my case closed as of 14th October 2011. which means that I have been over paying for 3 years, My ex did not bother informing the CSA that she no longer recieved C/B. The CSA has since contacted me and after trying to put me off have finally agreed to repay my over payments which add up to about £12000, as of yet they have not got back to me, I do know that I don't owe any arrears as they ran a check in August which showed no arrears, so you should be getting something back best of luck!!!

FBaby

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

This is a strange and baffling post. First you say PWC is getting the money, then you say you are paying your son directly. If you don't think you should pay discuss it with your son

I read it that he stopped paying csa after August agreed with csa and now pays son directly, but he is challenging the payment from May to August that he made to the csa, ie. to the mother when son had been out of school since February.

Sounds like what you need clarification as to the reasons why CB consider it was correct to continue to pay CB until August rather than stopping it after the quarter following his quitting.

MoneyExpertFan

Absolutely FBaby. I just send my son £60 a month til he finds a job. You are correct; I need to find out why CB are totally ignoring the fact that he last attended in February. I will call in personally at the college when I am next in the area (I live about 20 miles away from my son) and hopefully they will allow me to view the attendance record. Surely if I have evidence then the CB and CSA will take another look at my now 'closed' case.

nicky3

The DWP do not follow up on claims of fraud between parents. They told me this themselves.