I was quite happy to provide for my daughter and was buying essentials for her on a regular basis, until my ex-partner had one of her mental moments and told me to stick the latest load of nappies, food, clothes etc where the sun doesnt shine and called the CSA, who promptly took so much money off me I was left with £45 to feed myself on one month because they had assessed my wages on my gross pay instead of my net pay. I contacted them to apprise them of this situation to be told by the helpful 'advisor' on the end of a phone that 'Thats not my problem'. I duly ended up going off work sick with stress and lost even more money and notified the helpful CSA advisors of this and that consequently my wage would be different at the end of the month because of this and was assured this would all be taken into account. At the end of said month they had actually deducted even more money and a telephone call to them netted the exact same response of 'Thats not my problem' were it not for the level-minded presence of my current partner my next step would have been the nearest CSA office whereby id have made it their problem. I still havent been reimbursed six years later, and last year was made redundant from my previous job. During my last two weeks I was plagued by phone calls from the CSA demanding payment and informing them that my workplace was closing down and I was about to be made redundant were to no avail. They even sent out an assessment and told me how much they would be deducting starting in April of that year. I started a new job in the May but earning a good deal less, however theyre presently taking the amount they assessed from my old salary which was about £150 a month more than im earning now so I am going to contact them and hopefully get this rectified without any more 'its not my problem' responses, especially seeing as how I am currently settled with my partner and raising our four year old son. I also need dental treatment and I dont qualify for free treatment. In response to some of the remarks ive seen posted here im going to just make some pertinent points regarding the issues raised by some posters:- My experience of the attitude of CSA workers is that they are indifferent in most cases and actively hostile to the welfare of absent fathers. The incidents in 2006 where they had left me without sufficient funds to provide for myself demonstrates this. In both cases I had notified them that because of this I would be unable to afford food and to pay for my psychiatric medication to keep my combat-related PTSD under control. They chose to disregard this fact. I have experienced blatant hostility recently from CSA 'advisors'. During my conversations with them during my redundancy process one advisor began talking to me in a very abusive fashion and after me telling her that I had not received any assessment forms at my workplace, she then attempted to lead me into admitting that I had deliberately not filled it in. Fortunately when I am talking to such people I always pause before answering, but a person reacting emotionally might have admitted to something they had in fact not done. When it became clear to her this trick wouldnt work she slammed the phone down. My ex-partner is now receiving payments deducted from my salary, which are not being spent on my daughter. My mother visits my daughter on a regular basis and my daughter also stays with my mother. My mother has informed me that whenever she visits my daughter or collects her from my ex-partner she is always unwashed and / or wearing dirty clothes. In addition she regularly suffers from digestive disorders such as diarrhoea and constipation and has told my mother that she is fed predominantly junk food. My mother has raised issue with my ex-partner over both of these factors and additionally the cleanliness of the household (which was also a problem when I was with my ex-partner so I know it isnt being made up). Additionally my ex-partner has prevented or tried to limit as much as possible any contact between my daughter and myself. If anybody is reading the above paragraph and thinks woe betide my ex-partner because she is obviously struggling for money I suppose I had better add that her and her current partner currently have a 2012-plate car sitting outside their house, both have brand new Ipads, and once a month my ex-partner treats herself to those photo days where you go to a modelling studio, get made up and have nice photos taken. You know, the ones that cost about £200 a time. When my ex-partner and I split up, she had her stepfather and brothers threaten me to stay away from my daughter. She also sent me a text message saying 'Just to remind you that its Niamhs christening on Sunday such and such and you are not invited' and then had the temerity to have a solicitors letter sent out to me alleging that I was harassing her. She also told my mother the same thing and told her that I had said to her I didnt want to have anything to do with my daughter, however I kept the abusive text messages, the solicitors letter and the abusive letter she had written to me and showed them to my mother. So ladies who have been left up the creek by an absent father who refuses to pay their share I fully sympathise after growing up with an absent father who manipulated the court system to the extent he ended up paying only something like £5 a year and we endured hardship as a result. However for every b*****d of a father theres a b***h of a mother as well.

I moved to Northern Ireland from England in 2007. To be short, I wasnt in the best of health mainly due to the job I was doing and just packed in my job and left quietly without telling anybody where I was going moved to NI to be with my partner who I had met online. I didnt bother notifying my creditors as I figured id be unemployed for a while and so wouldnt be able to pay them. In 2008 I received a letter from BC demanding £50 a month for a court order they had obtained in payment for my MBNA card. They pretty much wanted this money yesterday so I phoned them to tell them I didnt have it. The conversation went pretty much like this:- Me:- I dont have this money Them:- Well then we'll turn this over to the bailiff. Me:- Just before you send anybody round I have a mental health condition that makes me prone to violence. Them:- Youre making threats there. We will report that to the police. Me:- I have threatened nobody. Im just giving you all the information you need to make the correct risk assessment to protect the welfare of your employees. Them:- We have a court order for this amount. We can send a bailiff round if we want to. Me:- How did you get a court order? Ive never received a summons. Them:- We summonsed you at your address ********************** in Manchester. Rather than have any hassle I made payments on the account for a while and then they sent me letters saying I hadnt paid and demanding more money. At this stage I had done my legal homework and was a bit better prepared when I called them. This time the conversation went like this:- Me:- Ive already paid and I can prove it. Im not paying any more. Them:- In that case we will pass this on to the bailiffs then. We have a court order. Me:- From which court? Them:- Northampton County Court Me:- When was it obtained? Them:- January 2008 Me:- In that case your judgment is illegal and unenforceable. I moved to Northern Ireland in February 2007 and its illegal to bring a civil prosecution against a person in an English court if they dont live in England, in the same way it'd be illegal for me to prosecute your company in a Northern Ireland Court. Them:- Well we didnt have a forwarding address, so we prosecuted you at the ******** address in Manchester. Me:- Really? Thats another offence under the outlawries bill. Them:- The what? Me:- The bill to prevent clandestine outlawries. Its a piece of legislation that dates back to the Anglo-Saxon days when failing to answer a summons meant somebody was declared an outlaw and could be killed on sight without fear of legal redress. Them:- Well im sorry about that but we have a judgment and if payments arent made then we are allowed to bring a bailiff in. Me:- Well go ahead and do that, if any bailiff sets foot on my property they will be going away in handcuffs. Them:- Why? Theyre allowed to do their job, its not a crime. Me:- It is in Northern Ireland. The legal system in Northern Ireland doesnt allow the operation of private bailiffs. In the event you had a judgment from a Northern Ireland court you would contact the enforcement of judgments officer at the High Court in Belfast, but he would only seize goods as very last resort. If you send b ailiffs around the minute they set foot on my property they are burglars and... Them:- How would they be burglars! Burglars are people who break into your property and steal things! Me:- The definition of burglary is trespass with the intent to committ a criminal offence. Your bailiffs are not welcome on my property and have no authority to enter therefore the moment they set foot on my property intending to seize goods or recover payment they are committing burglary and I will see them being taken away in an armoured landrover with handcuffs on. Them:- Ill need to speak to my manager and ill get somebody to give you a call back. Me:- Dont bother if the conversation is going to take a similar tone to the one weve just had. The law is on my side on this one. This was the last conversation I had with them until 2012 when they phoned me to ask why I hadnt paid. I had actually sent them a letter explaining I was being made redundant from my job and wouldnt be able to make payments until my situation had changed. I havent heard from them since. Knowledge is power!!!!

The more I read these threads and hear of the police saying they cant do anything in clear criminal cases because its a civil matter the more I wonder why im paying so much tax! Dont know about you guys but consider this nugget of advice. If you have bailiffs at the door or if you have somebody knocking at the door early doors claiming to be the police start videoing on your mobile phone before you open the door. Then if you do get some criminal, sorry I meant to say unscrupulous bailiff claiming to be the police and pushing in and then claiming you assaulted them when the real police arrive you have evidence to show to the contrary. However dont present it immediately; Allow the police to arrest you and then present the evidence during questioning. Then bring a private prosecution against the bailiff company for false arrest. Your case would almost certainly be successful, and then you can show them how it feels to get screwed!

The fact that the bailiff has pushed the dorr into your foot and caused you injury means it is now a criminal matter so go to the front desk of the local police station. If the officer on duty says its a civil matter and the police cant help then ask to speak to the duty inspector and make an official complaint

Been having trouble with them myself lately. I wrote to them early last year stating that I was currently of no fixed abode, I have mental health problems and overcoming a substance abuse problem I decided to live rough for a while (I know it sounds odd but its actually a benefit) and wrote to them communicating this. Despite this they keep sending letters to my partners house saying I havent paid them (demonstrably untrue) and when my partner rang up to tell them last month to tell them they were mistaken and that I wasnt even living there and had informed them of this they again fibbed and said they havent received any such letter (again demonstrably untrue - It was sent recorded delivery) personally I have no intention of contacting them by telephone as whenever I do they apply pressure trying to get more money out of me than I can afford to give them. If they threaten me with bailiffs or a home collection visit I will laugh - I now live in Northern Ireland where it is illegal to eploy private bailiffs to collect a debt even with a court order. Any court orders related to debt that are not being paid are handled by the enforcement of judgements officer in Belfast, and they would only visit and remove goods as a grave last resort because theyre not paid by results. Additionally any court action taken against me they would have to take at a court over here so when they say theyll have to take me to court im equally amused. Itd be a long drawn out process to take me to court here when theyre based over there and no guarantees of success. Plus I understand that lately courts are often tending to side with debtors. As a final note whenever of them threaten me with bailiffs I always make a point to inform them that I have mental health issues that make me prone to violence and violent behaviour, and that any visit by bailiffs is almost certainly going to lead to a confrontational situation. When I inform them of this they usually so 'Are you making threats there?' to which I reply 'I would never dream of making threats, I am merely giving you all the information you will need to ensure you carry out the proper risk assessments necessary to ensure the safety of your employees and agents' So far ive had this three times with DCA's threatening me with bailiffs, and seeming to think I dont know that court action precedes anything a bailiff can do