Support payments paid in cash to ex, now CSA wants money

Blimey

A good friend recently approached me with a problem that she is facing.

Her current partner had been informaly paying child support to his ex through cash in hand payments over the last few years. The payments were roughly £50 a week and in addition to this they had his son over 3 times a fortnight.

However it turns out his ex had also been getting money from the CSA in addition to his cash in hand payments. Now the CSA want a lump sum of approximately £5000 from him, something that he and my good friend cannot afford to pay.

His ex initialy agreed to inform the CSA but didnt and has made it clear that she wont and "wont let him bring her down". Effectively it is now his word against hers regarding the cash payments.

My initial reaction was to point out that even though the payments were cash in hand (big mistake) there would be some sort of trail, such as a withdrawl each week. But apparently the payment was not on a set day each week and withdrawls were usually cash from around the house, not a set £50 from a cash machine at a time.

Im currently trawling around trying to find a way to help my good friend and her partner but so far I have had no avail. This, in my opinion, is a great mis-justice and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

hobo28

Something doesn't sound right here? Why has she been getting money from the CSA if your friends partner hasn't been paying them?

Otherwise I'm afraid your friend has a serious problem. Paying cash in hand is never wise.

shellsuit

Hobo is right.

For the ex to receive money from the CSA, he would have had to have been paying the CSA. (Parent without care pays the CSA and the CSA pays it to the parent with care)

Who told him that his ex was getting CSA payments?

Is the ex OK to speak to, or a bit of a cow?

My ex gives me maintenance, but he gives it to me in cash and withdraws it along with his wages for bills, so in effect, there is nowhere on paper which says he pays me, but I tell the CSA exactly what he gives me as although I think he's a plank, I wouldn't take him for a ride.

Why doesn't she just tell the CSA he has been paying her, or was she/is she on benefits which could get her into trouble for not declaring it?

bravobeastie

I would put money on her being on benefits. However, the ex should still have been paying to the csa and should have noticed the money leaving his account? Unless he is unemployed or pays reduced rates each week? then she would still receive csa money via income support

My ex partner and i hadn't kept in contact after our daughter was born, however he still paid money each week via csa until they started with holding payments blaming computer errors, change of system etc. This went on for months and months. My ex and i got back in contact after almost 7 years and now do it all through the bank. I would never trust the csa with my money again.

Helen819

There is a solution to this,the person making the payments directly to the other parent (who i assume was on benifits and therefore still recieved the payment fron sed x,and the system itself) can ask parent m to ring the c.s.a and tell them that they do not want the monies recovered.I know this can be done because i have done it myself many yrs ago.I think i was working and my ex was giving me money cash in hand(he knew that i was declearing he was giving me nothing)this was because if we went through the csa then the payments would have been much higher to them than wot i recieved of him.so this way we bth gained.I remember he recieved a letter saying he owed them just over £7.000 ,i just rang them and told them i didnt want them to recover the money for me and that i wanted it scraped,which they did.I dont know if this applies to being on Income support though,i cant really remember if i was claiming benifit or not but it wasnt like it is now with income support now you have to make a commitment for them to retrieve the money from the other parent,then you didnt you had a choice whether you wanted to or not and i didnt want them to do it for me,but it meant that i really couldnt make my ex pay more when they asked for it.(well i could av done if i wer a complete b....,but im not).hoped this has helped .also if the father or other parent has the child staying for over 2nights then i think its classed as sharing so the same charges dont apply,(i think).

Strapped

I've been in your friend's position. When I met my now hubby, his ex had been to the CSA but for one reason and another, the claim took ages to get assessed - in the meantime, hubby had been sending money each week in cash home in his daughter's bag. Ex denied ever having received this at first, then finally admitted to £5 per week (it was actually much more) , so he had to pay the bulk of it again. Sorry to say, but your friend's partner is screwed.

zzzLazyDaisy

Several years ago, when my (now) partner left his wife, he continued to pay the mortgage, bills, and gave her money for the kids.

What he didn't know was that she had also made a claim for benefits (she wasn't working). It took about a year for the CSA to catch up with him and then they demanded full backpay calculated according to his P60.

He produced his bank statements to prove he had been paying the mortgage and the bills (the money for the kids was cash). By that time she had moved in with a new partner and was no longer on benefits, the CSA refused to investigate futher. By that time he owed thousands, and as far as I know he is still paying off the arrears in monthly installments now, ten years later.

iwantoneplease

My Partner has been stung in the same way, he left his wife divorced her and was paying her £50 per week by cheque.

The CSA hav made him pay all over again as the ex said the cheques were to cover her bills.

Not impressed he has paid them and fought this all the way unfortunately even though he pays weekly they still manage to find amounts that he still owes.

He went to court last year and it was all agreed by the CSA and the court that he repaid this money which is his, it's now come to light that he owes more due to the ex saying he never paid her anything but yet she's now had this twice. He also has his kids over whenever possible sometimes for the whole week during school holidays the CSA will not acknowedge this as the ex says it's untrue.

The thing that makes me really mad is my ex pays nothing I've found out his has 5 kids now and owes thousands as his oldest child is 12 and he's never paid for any of them. they never manage to catch up with him.. why do they penalise people that pay and not the ones that don't.

calleyw

My husband went through this as he decided to pay direct rather than via the CSA.

His ex claimed he was not paying back pay which he was. He had paid her by cheque and could prove it on bank statements.

He then went back to paying via the CSA. Mind you they are rather hopeless lot as they could not even manage to set up a DD and he has to manually pay them each month :rolleyes:

If you are not using the CSA then pay by cheque and I know it sounds petty but get the PWC to sign a notebook each time a payment is made. That is the only way to keep track.

Yours

Calley

iwantoneplease

He did pay by cheque and could prove that these cheques were paid to his ex, unfortunately the CSA to the stance that these cheques chould have been for anything and wouldn't except them. Even though they were regular amount paid each week.

He does pay via the CSA now but they keep altering the amount that he pays,

tsstss7

Blimey wrote: »

A good friend recently approached me with a problem that she is facing.

Her current partner had been informaly paying child support to his ex through cash in hand payments over the last few years. The payments were roughly £50 a week and in addition to this they had his son over 3 times a fortnight.

However it turns out his ex had also been getting money from the CSA in addition to his cash in hand payments. Now the CSA want a lump sum of approximately £5000 from him, something that he and my good friend cannot afford to pay.

His ex initialy agreed to inform the CSA but didnt and has made it clear that she wont and "wont let him bring her down". Effectively it is now his word against hers regarding the cash payments.

My initial reaction was to point out that even though the payments were cash in hand (big mistake) there would be some sort of trail, such as a withdrawl each week. But apparently the payment was not on a set day each week and withdrawls were usually cash from around the house, not a set £50 from a cash machine at a time.

Im currently trawling around trying to find a way to help my good friend and her partner but so far I have had no avail. This, in my opinion, is a great mis-justice and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Sorry haven't got time to read the thread so hope I'm not repeating any advice alreeady given - just want to say that I get a CSA payment and the CSA definately do not pay out money that they have not yet received. Mine has been late MANY times due to non payment and the CSA do not feel the need to compensate me financially and then chase my ex for payment so I doubt that they would do that for someone else.

My bet is that the ex has been on benefits and so doesn't want to declare as she would then have to pay that money back (which is a pretty big deal if you are living off benefits!) so it is unlikely she will admit to receiving payments.

cannot really offer advice - the CSA are a law unto themselves !!