CSA fines and fees

kevin7891

Hi, 
I have being paying child support for 4 years without missing any payments. I was contact with a initial letter and also a final reminder on 28th Dec 2019 that my payments had changed and that I had underpaid. Please note I did pay but it was under what the new balance should have been. It was £150 short 

when i contact CSA they advised I only had 5 days to contact them before I move to deduction of earnings and because it was now 4th of June I had missed the time frame. 

Since then I have moved to deduction from earnings and have to pay £60 collection fees each month for 13 months 

it seems extremely unfair that I should pay £700+ collection fees over a year. Has anyone experienced this before ?

Comms69

what happened between Dec and Jun?

diego_94

How have you ended up underpaying?  You need to understand why this has happened.

ZaSa1418

That is a little unfair, do you speak to your ex, could you ask her if she would be happy going back to direct pay? If so she could ask the CMS to do this as she will also get a deduction to the amount she gets at the moment.
You probably should have contacted them sooner though unless you had circumstances where that was not possible. 

kimplus8

They would have written to you more than one to tell you about the increase, once as a projected annual review, then confirmation of the annual review and thirdly a payment schedule. How did you miss all 3 notifications? They would also have chased u up, the only way they would know that you have been underpaying is if your ex reported it to them as they don’t monitor direct payments only collect and pay. 

I’m afraid unless there is a significant reason as to why you have been underpaying you will need to just accept the additional fees for 13 months as by law the CMS have acted correctly.