Urgent help - very worried

kelloggs36

Have you spoken to the woman who promised to get this sorted out for you? If not, then chase her up and see what has happened since. Have you had an MP response yet?

Becles

The lady just said the other letter was correct and we owe £1700. We have asked her again for an explanation of where the £1700 has come from, but she hasn't responded to our request. She did send us the £25 which was unexpected, but we can't understand why they are giving us money if they think we owe them money

The MP hasn't been in touch for 4 weeks now, so I'll drop a line and jog his memory.

It's been going on for months now, and to be honest we're sick of it and the hassle it is causing. We've been wondering about getting a loan out just to get the CSA off our backs, but hubby's credit record is bad, so it would have to be from a sub-prime lender which would be expensive.

All we want is someone to say "you owe this because.." and we'd understand this a whole lot better. Is that too much to ask?

Becles

We have asked for that, but we just got a spreadsheet that didn't make any sense to us. Nobody had time to explain it to us - we were just supposed to magically understand their abbreviations and references on it.

Strapped

Never speak to the CSA on the phone. Do everything in writing or you will go in circles.

Becles

Will this nightmare ever end :mad:

The offer of £10 a week was refused, so we offered £16 a week in line with the advice given earlier in this thread.

We've had the full account breakdown and found where the £1740 arrears have been calculated from. According to the account paper work, he made no payments from 1997 - 2002

He did make these payments but he no longer has proof that he made them, as he doesn't have any paperwork going that far back.

As we can't prove the payments were made, they say we have to pay the £1740 arrears.

We have now got a letter saying that the money must be paid back as soon as possible. This is from the lady who was going to sort everything out. Hubby is paid weekly, so she has put a deduction of earnings order to his employer for £101 a week :eek: This is starting from his wages due on 30/11 and will be collected over the next 18 weeks. My husband phoned the CSA and the man he spoke to agreed it was "harsh" but said there was nothing he could do.

I've honestly no idea what we are going to do now. This is going to seriously hurt us financially as we won't have enough money coming in to pay our outgoings.

I'm still claiming maternity allowance until January, so if I do any paid work, the wages will get taken off the MA £ for £.

I think we're going to have to try and find someone who will loan us the money and who has repayments that fit what we can afford to pay back each week.

At the moment trying to get the deduction from earnings notice stopped in our main priority.

I really hate the CSA now. If we'd point blank refused to pay anything, I could understand them being nasty, but when we've explained our finances and tried to make amicable agreements, I think it is absolutely disgusting and disgraceful that they have set the deduction from earnings up for such a high amount when they know fine well we cannot afford to pay £101 a week.

kelloggs36

Why on Earth are they deducting such a high amount when their own guidance states that arrears should be paid over a 2 year period? This would be £72.50 per MONTH towards arrears, on top of the usual assessment - is your weekly assessment nearly £90 per week? if not, then deffo chase up the MP and ask him to try and find out why they are pushing so hard and ignoring the household circumstances, which again, their guidance says they are to do.

sandy2_2

edit deleted post as info had been given previously, sorry

Hope you get it sorted

Becles

kelloggs36 wrote: »

Why on Earth are they deducting such a high amount when their own guidance states that arrears should be paid over a 2 year period? This would be £72.50 per MONTH towards arrears, on top of the usual assessment - is your weekly assessment nearly £90 per week? if not, then deffo chase up the MP and ask him to try and find out why they are pushing so hard and ignoring the household circumstances, which again, their guidance says they are to do.

The claim for the child ended in April 04 when she was taken abroad, so there is no regular maintenance liability now. His last weekly payment in Jan 06 was for £21.63.

It was when we tried to claim the overpayments from April 04-Jan 06 back, that they started to claim he never paid for 5 years between 1997-2002, but this is the first he has heard of it as he was paying during that time.

They said they can ignore the household circumstances as he is on "old rules" so they are treating him as a single man. They can't acknowledge me or our 3 children unless he goes on "new rules". The mother has to instigate this though, which she can't do as she is abroad so she isn't entitled to maintenance.

We offered the £16 a week to clear it within 2 years as someone previously suggested. This was initially accepted, but then they have decided it must be paid back as soon as possible, so they are taking the maximum they are allowed too, which is £101 a week.

I've hardly slept last night worrying about this as we cannot survive financially if they take this much money off us.

Fran

Becles wrote: »

The MP hasn't been in touch for 4 weeks now, so I'll drop a line and jog his memory.

It sounds like you haven't got some effective 'force' working for you; get on to MP again also the woman who said she'd give you a breakdown (was this the 'higher up' one? - if not get another person from CSA higher up again); CAB can phone their specialists and also can in any case write letters on your behalf - did they get this far before? The amount per week sounds outrageous, there must be some rule somewhere that says you can't make a family especially with kids pay an amount that is unaffordable.

howmuchcaniget

Becles wrote: »

Will this nightmare ever end :mad:

We've had the full account breakdown and found where the £1740 arrears have been calculated from. According to the account paper work, he made no payments from 1997 - 2002

He did make these payments but he no longer has proof that he made them, as he doesn't have any paperwork going that far back.

As we can't prove the payments were made, they say we have to pay the £1740 arrears.

I have read all the posts relating to your nightmare and I am appalled at the treatment you have received. I wrote off £14,000 due to the CSA's incompetant system (some of the staff are fantastic I need to state).

I work in the banking industry and I know for a fact that all documents have to be kept for 6 years so you should be able to track down the slips you paid at the post office for the year 2001. It's not many but it proves you were paying and reinforces your argument. Go to the post office where the payments were made and speak to the manager - ask him how to track the slips and let him know that you are aware they have to keep all slips for 6 years before destroying them.

Good luck.