Battling CSA demons

vicshippers

My boyfriend has just had his CSA payments taken from £289 a month to £389 a month (so we now cant afford luxuries like electricity - he now takes home less than £600 a month after working 7am - 6pm Mon to Fri), because he missed some payments when he changed jobs.

He has to pay so much as he doesn't see the two kids at all...however he does WANT to see the kids but we can't find the mum....

Any ideas?

Js_Other_Half

Hi

I've no advice, but there is a CSA sub forum here where you might have more answers:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=140

pinkshoes

Could he not stop the payments, get in touch with the CSA and ask them for a contact? (put the money from the stopped payments into a savings account so he can pay them at a later date).

It seems ludicrous that a father has to cough up so much money when he can't even find the mother's whereabouts to have access.

It's probably against the CSA rules, but they MUST know who this money is being sent to, and surely they can't deny a father access to his kids when they force him to pay maintenance??

Zara33

pinkshoes wrote: »

Could he not stop the payments, get in touch with the CSA and ask them for a contact? (put the money from the stopped payments into a savings account so he can pay them at a later date).

It seems ludicrous that a father has to cough up so much money when he can't even find the mother's whereabouts to have access.

It's probably against the CSA rules, but they MUST know who this money is being sent to, and surely they can't deny a father access to his kids when they force him to pay maintenance??

There is probably no point in him stopping payments as the csa will just add a deo to his wages and probably take him further into debt, contact and child support payments are two seperate issues.

The CSA are not allowed to disclose details of other parties

outrageous_monkey

zara33 is right, the CSA do not have to disclose the mothers whereabouts if she has ticked the little box on all the paperwork requesting that no information of whereabouts be given.

The CSA is a law unto itself IMO. You either get nowt (like me) or they seem to take an extraordinary amount off some guys.


But could you phone the CSA up and ask for them to look into your expenses again?, like and income expenditure form. If he hasnt done on in quite a while, I'm sure they do this on a regular basis, so it could be worth asking for it to be looked at again,

vicshippers

Our account manager is really unsympathetic, her response to me asking if she knew other ways we could find the mother was 'i dont know and im not meant to'...i was furious (calm though).

Im going to have to find a second job because we just really cant afford to live at the minute. When I explained our expenses she said 'we are entitled to take 60% of his earnings and if people refuse to pay us then we are forced to take it without question'....not a great xmas this year me thinks :-(

Thanks for all your help though guys, it's much appreciated.

pinkshoes

How come they're entitled to 60%?!?! I thought i was meant to be 15% or something?!?!

tightrs

pinkshoes wrote: »

How come they're entitled to 60%?!?! I thought i was meant to be 15% or something?!?!

i think only recent claims pay 15% or 20% for two ,old cases still pay much more whilst waiting to be reassessed,plus he owes some back payments.

Kimitatsu

Under the new ruling they are entitled to take 60% of his income to cover arrears, however if you can prove hardship or that the arrears would be paid off in less tham two years on a lesser sum then they can amend that figure.

They are not allowed under the Data Protection Act to tell you where the mother is, but youcould try the electoral role on 192.com or failing that if they are of school age which school they have been referred onto. The school has to give details of all school related issues to both parents unless there is a court order preventing them from doing so.

Contact and maintenance are not linked so it would not matter how much he paid he still has to pay it - if you can survive whilst you appeal to the CSA that is your best bet as maintenance payments are a priority debt and enforceable by deduction of earnings (and no they dont have to go to court to get it - they can just issue it to your employer)

HTH