New (man) to Claiming from the CSA

Loopy_Girl

I know how you feel..I am the same.

The way I deal with it (and stop myself going off my head!!!) is that if I get it - great if not, well I seem to find a way to manage so will keep on doing that.

It would be great and really ease the number crunching I permanately do in my head every day but I'm no holding my breath!!!!

Good luck with the job

::OMG::

Loopy_Girl wrote: »

The way I deal with it (and stop myself going off my head!!!) is that if I get it - great if not, well I seem to find a way to manage so will keep on doing that.

Here's to that. I am going back to work because I can't rely on the CSA any longer. As you say, I won't miss what I haven't got and if something comes of it, so be it.

mutley74

got a letter last week from CSA saying NRP as to pay a revised amount from the summer. It does not state previous arrears of NRP - over £3k, which concerns me. Any suggestions, as it seems that csa have wiped off NRPs debt without informing me, and yet in almost 2years i have not received a penny!

enemes

mutley74 wrote: »

got a letter last week from CSA saying NRP as to pay a revised amount from the summer. It does not state previous arrears of NRP - over £3k, which concerns me. Any suggestions, as it seems that csa have wiped off NRPs debt without informing me, and yet in almost 2years i have not received a penny!

Hi Mutley

It may be that the NRP's circumstances have changed ( for the better or worse) and indeed a re-assessment has taken place. Because there is no mention of arrears, it doesn't mean that they have been wiped off. Different teams within the CSA deal with different issues, and they don't all come together at the same time. It may be worth phoning them, to acknowledge their letter, and then remind them that there are arrears on your account. (If you had arrears with your bank, it would flag up right away, but it doesn't work like that at the CSA ... sometimes - well, almost all the time - they need us to tell them the obvious).

Have you emailed a complaint to them? It seems that you have to complain to get anywhere these days. You can do it from here

Good luck ... hope you catch the pigeon!

mutley74

enemes wrote: »

Hi Mutley

It may be that the NRP's circumstances have changed ( for the better or worse) and indeed a re-assessment has taken place. Because there is no mention of arrears, it doesn't mean that they have been wiped off. Different teams within the CSA deal with different issues, and they don't all come together at the same time. It may be worth phoning them, to acknowledge their letter, and then remind them that there are arrears on your account. (If you had arrears with your bank, it would flag up right away, but it doesn't work like that at the CSA ... sometimes - well, almost all the time - they need us to tell them the obvious).

Have you emailed a complaint to them? It seems that you have to complain to get anywhere these days. You can do it from here

Good luck ... hope you catch the pigeon!

enemes,
Thanks for quick response.
have i complained is an understatement! 2 complaint letters in past 3 months - they have been received by CSA but no formal reply. They keep telling me it is with debt recovery - but when i write letter to them or phone them never get a response back. I used to call them each week - waste of time. A few weeks ago i wrote a complaint letter to my local MP. Based on lack of communication and lack of response from csa. I have been told the regional csa director will review my case and feedback via MP.

But to get a letter telling me a revised assessment of NRP income, and not showing any debt figures in the column labelled "arrears" was just salt on a wound for me. I feel that the csa saying they have powers to take money from employer or other things is a waste of time.

thanks for reply.
p.s how is your case getting on?

enemes

Thanks for that ...

From experience, writing letters to the CSA is a waste of time. A complaint has to be submitted by email, a sign of the times, but there is an electronic record of it ... unlike the mail which easily gets lost in the post.

Submit your complaint from the CSA site http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/case/complaints.asp

If you haven't had a response within the allocated time slot, take a copy of your complaint to your MP ( of course, it really depends who your MP is).

I have PM'd you another address to pluck at.

enemes

SuziQ

I have a friend living in America,and she says that their system is far quicker and more brutal than ours. If the pwc fails to allow contact once an order of visitation is inplace,the pwc can be in court within days and can be jailed. If the nrp fails to pay the assessed maintenance,it's avery quick trip to court,garneshing of wages and again ultimately imprisonment.
One of the heartbreaking things we found is the length of time it takes to get anything into court re contact. Months go by,kids get used to not seeing their nrp,and if the pwc care is as nasty as my husbands ex they get thoriughly lied to and alienanted from their nrp.
Once it gets into court,kids often say they don't want to see the nrp,and in our case,even when the pwc was ordered to take the children to an assessment centre so that the children's contact could be reported on (and in this case the cafcass officer reported the kids were obviously having a great time,contact was very positive etc) the next time (7 weeks later-the contact centre was inundated) when they go to the centre an hour late (she said they hadn't wanted to come and she wasn't going to force them) the kids were interviewed by the social worker and they said they didn't want contact. As each of them came back out to their mother,they both said-clearly,in front of the SW-it's ok mum.I told him exactly what you said'. This was reported to the judge,who merely told her that she was probably damaging her children,but he then turned and told my husband that unfortunately he had reached the end of the line,and where the pwc was as intransigent as her,there was nothing more the courts could do,as he was not prepared to jail her 'for the sake of the children'.
We had been unable to go for custody as she had originally alleged he had broken into their house to strangle her (this was disproved as he was on business in Sweden the night she alleged it had taken place!) this took 9 months to sort out,by which time the kids had almost forgotten he existed as she had moved her boyfriend in and they were already calling him dad.

I am divorced from my oldest 2 kids father. He was violent due to an illness and moved out,then subsequently decided he didn't want a 'family' lifestyle.
He has never paid maintenance,but I would never have hurt the children by witholding contact or talking negatively about him.Indeed when he fails to keep in touch I nag him until he does so!
My second husband and I split up in April,but he knows he can see his son whenever he can-he works very unsociable hours and so needs to make contact sometimes with little or no notice. I feel it is in my son's best interest to be as flexible as possible.

Why are so many parents with care so awkward,spiteful,bitter,nasty,selfish-do they honestly feel that witholding contact or demonising the children's nrp is good for the child?

Why do nrp feel that any money they pay is going to the pwc and not the children? How do they think the pwc looks after the kids financially prior to maintenance being sorted?

Why can't a fairer method of assessment be sorted out,so that nrp can still manage to live whilst paying maintenance? ( in this instance,I am talking about easy targets like my current husband,who has always cooperated and paid up-he was even paying his ex voluntarily prior to the cas assessment-she then denied he had paid her a penny and he was hit with a huge arrears bill.)
It's not rocket science-apparently it's harder than that!
Off my soap box now. I just wish that things could be made easier for families that break up.The children should ALWAYS be the top priority,and therefore contact and maintenance should be fair on all sides. Utopia-it ain't gonna happen,is it?

::OMG::

SuziQ wrote: »

... their system is far quicker and more brutal than ours. If the pwc fails to allow contact once an order of visitation is inplace,the pwc can be in court within days and can be jailed. If the nrp fails to pay the assessed maintenance,it's avery quick trip to court,garneshing of wages and again ultimately imprisonment.

It may sound ideal, but in reality, these measures would be counter-productive. I don't think bringing a child to visit the NRP in prison would benefit the child. If the NRP is inside, presumably he/she would loose employment ... thus not in a position to provide for their child anyway.

Quite frankly, there is only one sure way of making NRP's pay, and that is for the CSA to be swallowed up by the Inland Revenue, and allow them to 'tax' at source the NRP to pay for their child/ren.

Yeah, you'll have those who won't work just so they don't pay ... but no matter what attempts are made, they will always find a way out of it. Simply stop all their benefits - that'll flush them out.

... but jail isn't the answer, as those who are at Her Majesty's pleasure are exempt from paying CSA, as the law stands at the moment.

mutley74

enemes wrote: »

Thanks for that ...

From experience, writing letters to the CSA is a waste of time. A complaint has to be submitted by email, a sign of the times, but there is an electronic record of it ... unlike the mail which easily gets lost in the post.

Submit your complaint from the CSA site http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/case/complaints.asp

If you haven't had a response within the allocated time slot, take a copy of your complaint to your MP ( of course, it really depends who your MP is).

I have PM'd you another address to pluck at.

enemes

Rang CSA.they told me as NRP circumstances have changed they have had to sideline the debt and the new calcultion includes the arrears. No way i said how can you write off a £3k debt for someone just as they please. The new calc lists no arrears in the "arrears column". I feel totally fobbed off, as i know either the csa are playing games with me for being a male PWC, or the NRP is messing csa around or both. Probably both from my experience.
CSA seem to take whatever the NRP tells them on the phone as formal information, they never ask the NRP for proper proof. last time CSA told me NRP said on the phone "they are not working" hence they made no calcultion and almost closed my case - till i complained. How can they do that????:mad:

SuziQ

::OMG:: wrote: »

It may sound ideal, but in reality, these measures would be counter-productive. I don't think bringing a child to visit the NRP in prison would benefit the child. If the NRP is inside, presumably he/she would loose employment ... thus not in a position to provide for their child anyway.

Quite frankly, there is only one sure way of making NRP's pay, and that is for the CSA to be swallowed up by the Inland Revenue, and allow them to 'tax' at source the NRP to pay for their child/ren.

Yeah, you'll have those who won't work just so they don't pay ... but no matter what attempts are made, they will always find a way out of it. Simply stop all their benefits - that'll flush them out.

... but jail isn't the answer, as those who are at Her Majesty's pleasure are exempt from paying CSA, as the law stands at the moment.

I disagree I'm afraid. The mere threat of jail is often enough to make people cooperate-the figures of those imprisoned for this reason in America is quite low,the point is they KNOW that they can be put in jail for non-compliance,whereas in this country little seems to happen,as demonstrated repeatedly on this site.

Our system clearly ISN'T working for many people-it certainly didn't help me to get a single penny from the father of my 2 eldest children.

As for the pwc denying contact through sheer spitefulness-hell yes they deserve to go to jail!