Child Support Agency being difficult - Help please!

Mike_C

Hi am hoping someone here can put some light at the end of the tunnel for me, I am feeling completely shafted and hopeless.

I'll try and summise.

I got a call then a letter from the CSA recently, My ex-wife is (falsely) claiming for non payment from 2008 to 2016.
The CSA want me to pay her back about £5.5k (£50 a week)

I wrote to them asking for details, ie, how they came to this decision, what proof, etc, but they rejected my request and went ahead by sending me a standing order mandate for me to set up immediately.

I countered by going to my Bank and asking for a printout showing the mandate from 2008 which clearly shows I have been paying my ex-wife since that day and to this day.
(They are not disputing amount, they are disputing payments). Anyhow I sent them the proof of that by recorded delivery.

Today I had a further letter saying that I must pay immediately and that if not, they may deduct the amount at source.
I phoned them to be informed that I had not provided sufficient proof and that for starters they wanted one year's worth of Bank statements from 2008, (Now, I don't know many people that have kept Bank statements going back 10 years) I only have last 5 years

Called my Bank whom will send me the statements for that year, but it will take up to 3 weeks as it's very old archived data. In the meantime, I am worried that they will deduct the money for non payment directly from my employer or my Bank account, while I wait for the proof to arrive and then send it on.

My child finished A-Levels in July (Starts UNI in Sept), so am I right in thinking that I no longer have to pay child maintenance? (I am still paying)

Also, when I send the statements, can I redact any other payments? Or should I leave them as is?

Any help, much, much much appreciated.

Thank you.

jimd-f

your child maintenance will end on first Monday in sep when child benefit stops.
you need to phone them and tell them what the bank have advised you and insist they do not deduct any money until you have been able to get the necessary papers from the bank. ask to speak to a manager if this is refused.
you can redact any payments that you do not want them to see, but I would only redact the actual payee.
CMS policy is to give you time to produce proof, but the time limits they give are not always realistic so you need to get past that aspect. note; if they have given you deadlines in the past that you have ignored then they will be less likely to grant extensions to the norm.

DUTR

Mike_C wrote: »

Hi am hoping someone here can put some light at the end of the tunnel for me, I am feeling completely shafted and hopeless.

I'll try and summise.

I got a call then a letter from the CSA recently, My ex-wife is (falsely) claiming for non payment from 2008 to 2016.
The CSA want me to pay her back about £5.5k (£50 a week)

I wrote to them asking for details, ie, how they came to this decision, what proof, etc, but they rejected my request and went ahead by sending me a standing order mandate for me to set up immediately.

I countered by going to my Bank and asking for a printout showing the mandate from 2008 which clearly shows I have been paying my ex-wife since that day and to this day.
(They are not disputing amount, they are disputing payments). Anyhow I sent them the proof of that by recorded delivery.

Today I had a further letter saying that I must pay immediately and that if not, they may deduct the amount at source.
I phoned them to be informed that I had not provided sufficient proof and that for starters they wanted one year's worth of Bank statements from 2008, (Now, I don't know many people that have kept Bank statements going back 10 years) I only have last 5 years

Called my Bank whom will send me the statements for that year, but it will take up to 3 weeks as it's very old archived data. In the meantime, I am worried that they will deduct the money for non payment directly from my employer or my Bank account, while I wait for the proof to arrive and then send it on.

My child finished A-Levels in July (Starts UNI in Sept), so am I right in thinking that I no longer have to pay child maintenance? (I am still paying)

Also, when I send the statements, can I redact any other payments? Or should I leave them as is?

Any help, much, much much appreciated.

Thank you.

Hello Mike, when my CSA case was running I got annual statements showing what I had paid and what was to pay and it always showed no arrears, I had managed my case by using a stand alone current account and kept all statements and correspondence from the CSA, when the case closed (as the previous poster points out) 1st Monday in September following end of CB. They done some final checks confirmed nothing outstanding and promptly re-imbursed the over payments.
It seems odd that all of a sudden they are claiming under payments when they often review the account annually, good luck with the case and I'm hoping it's just an admin error.