Advice needed re current situation with c.s.a

silverangel35

Hi, I have been looking at the threads on this forum for a few weeks now and this morning I have decided to post for any help that can be given as I feel totally at a loss as to what I can do next.
I will give you the background etc, so this may be long but please beare with me (I will try to only give the important facts) Thanks

My husband decided to up and leave myself and our 2 children in May 2004, as a result of having to stay at home with 1 of my children I gave up work and went onto income support. At the time I contacted c.s.a to advise them of the situation and they assured me they would contact him re child support, however 9 months went by and nothing was done, then after alot of complaining I received a consolotary payment as an apology from them that nothing had been done in that time, the ex received no letters, no contact etc. He didnt even have to pay them or me back dated arrears for this time. After this he tried the stalling tactics of trying to say 1 of our children wasnt his, until he realised that was a no brainer and decided to co-operate with them.
On 5th July 2005 I received a letter from the c.s.a outlining the amount the ex had to pay me, which was £27.86 a week, at that time we were 'talking & amicable' so decided it was easier for him to pay me direct at £110 a month, which he did starting August 2005. Then out of the blue in June 2006 the payments stopped and within that months gap he had found a new girlfriend and moved from the area.
No contact from him until August 2006 when in a text message he says, he has had to leave work and is looking for work on minimum wage so cant afford to pay me child support...I contacted the c.s.a immediately as they had told me if he defaults then I can use their services, so this is what I did, however now wish I didnt
I contacted them beginning of September 2006 and they explained the situation etc and they would take it up on my behalf and get the payments from him. To that date I have heard not a dickie bird from them, no letters, no phone calls, no nothing. I left it a while as I knew they were dealing with backlogs etc from what I heard in the news but then I thought why am I not doing something?? I called the number I had in January 2007, only to be told that my case hadnt been looked at and they had backlog of 6-8 weeks, I told the man this was unacceptable and reminded him that I would be calling back in 2 months time.. I called them in March 2007 only to be told my case still hadnt been looked at !! By that time I thought why bother !!
Then something my eldest said to me spurred me into action again...I called the c.s.a on 19th September 2007 this time I was given a different number to ring (0845 609 0072) spoke to a 'nice' lady who told me they have found my case and she will deal with it now but nothing had been done on the case atall, their system when she looked, showed that the ex had been on incapacity benefit Nov/Dec 2006 and she will write to the Inland Revenue to see if they hold any employment details for him now, so giving them the required 2 week time frame I called her again on 15th October 2007 and she advised me she has had the reply from Inland Revenue and they have given her a work address, but it looks like it may be self-employed, she also claims they have written to the ex at his address (which is different from the old address he used to live at) but have receieved no reply from him. She said she will write to the work address and this will take 2 weeks and I told her I would call her end of October..

Have just come of the phone to them and my contact (who by the way isnt a case worker or anybody like that) isnt in work til Monday, but another lady told me that it appears they have nothing on their system to show a reply has been received, but did tell me that they have a 16-18 week backlog !!!! yes she felt my wrath at telling me this !! and even if they do have his employment details, they cant deduct money unless they get an agreement from him first..this is now all new to me, why cant they just enforce the procedure? She said the employer has 7-10 days to contact them, its now been 14 days. And even if I do get a payment from him there is nothing to stop him from changing jobs again and not paying.
In January I am going back to work full time and as advised by my income support officer, I will need this child support sorted out by then.
He now owes back-dated from September 2006 and even though I am only entitled to £10 of this money at the moment, that is alot back dated for me. My eldest is now 17 and I fear that by the time he leaves college this still wont be sorted, hence the ex getting away with having to pay for him atall

Can anybody advise if there is anything I can do at the moment? It seems like all they are prepared to do is send out letters and not act on anything? I am due to phone my contact back on Monday so any advise before then would be greatfully received.

Sorry this is so long, but I figured without a background its pretty pointless.

Thankyou again for any help

kelloggs36

Can I just clarify that when he was paying you direct, were you still on Income support? If so, then I hope that you declared this money to them as they should have deducted penny for penny of this and you won't have been entitled to keep the first £10 per week either. Just to warn you.

Is he working or Self-Employed? It doesn't seem 100% clear from your post - if he is working then they don't need his permission to get a DEO put in place, unless he is the director in which case it probably won't work! If he is self employed they clearly can't take this option and will need to take alternative enforcement action against him. You can ask that they send a Compliance person out to visit him - has the case been referred for a visit by them to his home address?

You can't rely on getting it sorted out by then as the chances are it won't happen and then you will be disappointed. Plan without the money and then if it does get sorted, it will be a bonus.

silverangel35

Hi Kelloggs & thank you for your reply

Yes the money was declared, I did everything by the book and each month gave them a photocopy of the payment received via the payments forms the c.s.a sent to me in 2005. I had to let them know the change in circumstances when he started to pay me in 2005, (as before that they were paying me from May 2004 whilst the c.s.a were doing nothing on my case) All I can remember back then is the amount I had to live on was hardly anything (mind you it still is lol) They finally changed the amount in October 2006 to £57.45 a week which I guess takes into account the fact Im not getting child support anymore.

As for whether he is working, thats the strange part. He was definately working up until he sent me the text to say he left his job looking for a minimum wage job, but then he vanished with no word atall. The lady at the c.s.a says he was claiming incapacity benefit nov/dec 2006 and thats all the info she had on her system so thats when she said she would contact inland revenue who came back with an employers address for him but it didnt seem to her that it was a company as she asked if he was self-employed due to the fact the work address to her seemed like a residential address. (He never did self-employed work for the 19 years I was with him, so that was baffling).
Its just a matter I guess for them to tell me whether its self employed or employed...I am obviously hoping he isnt self-employed as this seems to be more hassle if this were to be the case.

When I call the lady back on Monday I will ask her if she clarified the above info about his employment details (& keep everything crossed) & also about the compliance person. I dont think thats been done so it will be nice for me to suggest that to her and hear what her reaction is

I will keep you posted to let you know what Mondays conversation is like, but yep I will plan to live without the money come January, after all thats what I have been doing so far, although hard, if anyone can survive its me It hasnt beaten me yet

Thank you again Kelloggs, your reply has been very much appreciated

kelloggs36

No problem - if you need any more advice, just ask!

silverangel35

Update...

Oh my god I nearly fell over...The child support agency called me this morning !! :eek: :eek: My contact there called to say the following...

This morning upon her return to work she has received the details from the ex's employee and unfortunately although they have the wage details he has since left (grrr) he worked there from April to July this year. She has nothing else on the system to show he is on any benefits etc.

Sooo I asked her who is at fault here? if this was picked up earlier we would have got him when he was working, to which she had no reply for. I asked her about a compliance officer and she doesnt think it will be 'valid' in this case, but she is now going to do the following today..

Phone up his old employee and ask them if they have reference requests for another job and ask them if they know where he was going or why he left. And write to him AGAIN at the home address of his.

She will then get back to me.

Its really fustrating as his mother and father and family live within 5 mins of me and I so want to go pay them a visit, but I darent. Have to do it the c.s.a way

silverangel35

Keeping this thread updated, mainly for my benefit so I have a record of it all lol But also hoping for a good outcome at some point

K called C.S.A on 17th Dec, my contact was unavailable so msg left for her to call me back....No return phone call received from anyone

Called them this morning...spoke to my contact, who apologised for not returning my call...they still have no more info on the ex (no surprise there), he hasnt replied to any letters they have written & his ex employer has no reference requests atall. Contact checked the benefits system & he isnt showing on there.

She will now speak to her manager to find out what other options are available to "get this man" lol (that made me laugh)
I have suggested bank account and she will see what she can do and let me know, she is also checking self employed options.
Advised her I have a job interview etc for full time work and will need this sorted, for some reason this claim then seemed alot more important to them :mad: like £10 a week to me isnt for the past 17 months !!!

Anyway have decided to write a little letter to his mother and father and drop it through their letterbox 2moro, I know he will still be in contact with them so hopefully the message will get through to him to stop avoiding the C.S.A and pay up ! lol, although they probably assume he has been paying this all along !

Will update again if and when I get more info

kelloggs36

They can send a compliance person round to visit him - have you requested that? If you have a photo that would be great as it is common for those who don't wish to be traced to deny who they are, unless they have a photo to compare, the CSA staff don't know if he is telling the truth or not!

paulamathers

the CSA are pants. Write to their complaints people, and copy in your MP, complaining about everything that has happened. Your MP will get involved and it will speed up the CSA. I had been fighting with them for 4 1/2 yrs for money for my daughter - when I got my mp involved in November, the csa stared ringing me every week and bending over backward for me. good luck!

pd001

I am a little concerned after reading through this thread and i am suprised no one else has picked this up.

silverangel35 you said,
The lady at the c.s.a says he was claiming incapacity benefit nov/dec 2006 and thats all the info she had on her system so thats when she said she would contact...........

Not good, and certainly a breach of data protection.

What do you think kelloggs36?

kelloggs36

In some cases when a person is on benefits, that information is passed on in order that the other person can know how the assessment has been calculated. HOwever, what should have been said is that he may be in receipt of a prescribed benefit which would explain the minimum payment. To be honest, if a case gets to appeal the PWC gets to see all that sort of info anyway - data protection is a bit cr*p to be honest.

silverangel35

Grrr I am back on form again re the csa, sometimes I wonder if it is really worth all the trouble

Re the data protection act query from pd001 ~ I am all clued up on that act and I dunno seemed kinda weird that she told me that but hey it just goes to show how 'useless' the csa people really are (imho).

@kelloggs, when I enquired about the compliance officer before she told me she didnt think it was 'valid' in my case I assumed thats because I'm not working atm and it would cost to much to get someone sent out to see him.

Soooo I call my contact at the c.s.a this morning, all geared up with my previous notes etc of when I have called them only to be told da da da..... they are currently experiencing technical difficulties and cannot access any computer info !!! lmao just my luck grrr :mad: So I will call them back this afternoon before 5pm (as this is when my contact goes home).

Seriously beginning to wonder whats the point, much more of this and I will more than likely tell them to forget the whole thing and let them wipe their records of him ever being a 'father' and owing anything

Will update later this afternoon