Hi all, I split with my ex some 6 years ago and since then I have paid CSA of £450 per month (4 kids so 25% of my take home pay of £1800 as it was then!), I have also been paying the full mortgage, a secured loan and the Home Insurance for the house I do not live in. As I write this I can see I am being too generous. I do however get on fine with my ex and I see it as me paying for a roof over the kids heads not hers.I also have no problems seeing my kids anytime I want. However, I am now in dire financial trouble and am looking for ways to reduce my outgoings. I simply do not have enough income now my new partner has lost her job. I actually now take home approx £2000 but the CSA payment has never been amended. I was wondering, legally do I need to increase the payment to £500 as I am paying the mortgage and secured loan (which was for home improvements before we split). I actually pay out £1200 per month to CSA, the loan, the mortgage and the Home Insurance, oh I just remembered I pay both out Life Insurance too!! I'm therefore left with £800 per month to live on. I know some will say stop paying the mortgage, however she cant afford it and I believe I legally have to keep a roof over the kids heads? It also only has 10 years left before it is paid so I don't want to sign it over to her as I'll lose my share of the equity. On another note, although it is in joint names she has never paid a penny towards it. So I guess my question is, should I approach the CSA? Is it possible to deduct the mortgage and secured loan from the £2000 and end up with me paying less? I simply cant sustain the £450 let alone increasing it! Thanks in advance. Steve

I can see a similar question on here but don't want to gatecrash the askers thread & my circs are slightly different maybe. I'm sure I have asked on here before, but no joy. Son is in 2nd & final year of 6th form, he will be 18 in March next year, & leaves 6th form in May. He's hoping to do an apprentiship, with an IT firm from May, 100 pounds per week. I currently work 30+ hours a week self employed, & claim working tax credits, housing benefit etc. Have 2 teens, daughter is 16 in January & at school another 2 years. When will CSA payments stop? Relations with the kids dad is cool, but he literally is counting down the days to when his CSA goes down lol (he pays 240 per month for them both which comes straight out his wages on a DOE as he was bad at paying when I was on IS yrs back & I didn't receive it anyway) Thanks x

I wasn't sure whether to post this in the Work & Social forum or in the Bailiffs forum. As this matter is now in the hands of the Rossendales I assume this would be the best place. My friend has received a demand from Rossendales to the tune of £4100 for CSA arrears against a liability order dated September 2012. As far as he can recall he has not had any correspondance from the CSA regarding any arrears and received no correspondance prior to Sept 2012 informing him that they would be seeking a liability order. On my advice he has contacted Rossendales this morning to advise them that he will be writing to the CSA to ask for clarification of the arrears owed (amounts & dates etc) plus copies of all correspondance from the CSA regarding the arrears. This will, hopefully, give him a bit of breathing space so we can work out what to do next. Any ideas? This may, or may not be relevent but he no longer lives at the address he was at when the liability order was made.

hi, some time ago i was in arears with my maintenance payments, i wont go into that here, anyhow they wrote to me approx 8 years ago to say they wont be pursuing me for the debt. they wrote back this week to say that they now want me to pay the arrears, its a sizeable amount and I will pay as much as i need to to clear the debt. if they had said 8 years ago that i need to pay 100 a month to clear the debt i would have done. anyhow, i am now self employed, can anyone tell me how they will calculate the amount that i have to pay, i believe its based on my last years accounts. but i dont know what percentage they will want. also do i have to disclose my partners wages or can they asses me alone. i have already agree to a payment rate for the first three months, i guess that after they they will hit me as hard as they can. but i just want to get the debt paid and sorted now.

Hi folks CSA has been in touch and have been given the figures etc on what to pay In regards to amounts, If the Ex who is now engaged (proof in paper) is living with the guy and he has a very successful buildings company Should my payments stay the same even knowing this information ? or would they lower knowing that she is with a new guy earning loads ? Thanks all

I need some advice asap i am currently in CSA arrears of over £600 maybe more as i have stoped paying it the reason for this is because they wanted £300 per month for the amount each week and arrears, i work full time and get a wage of £900 a month! £385 of this is my rent £125 is attachment to earnings from CT arrears and i have to live on the rest food and bills (which i was unable to pay paying CSA) i have a pregnant wife who can't work and she gets no help from benifits because of my wage. We have been to CAB and they can't do anything just told us we have to pay even they know the hell the CSA put people through, i've tried talking to the CSA but they wont help they are not bothered about the parent who has to pay. I am not refusing to pay CSA its just i can not afford the £300 they want i refuse to put my unborn baby in a life time of debt and Poverty because of it!! If anyone can help that would be great Thanks

Question - If the non resident parent pays £180 per month for one child via CSA, why is the other parent is not made to pay the same amount so each parent pays equal? OK, the child lives with mum, but that was mums choice when she left! Why do us dads (sometimes mums) always get penalised. So the mother leaves and takes the child, but we get charged for it, where is the justice in this? Hardly surprising so many on benefits, they pay minimum csa, get jobseekers allowance, council tax paid, free medical/dental etc. Whats the point in working? If you 1 child not living with you, one at home and earn £180 per week net, some £26 per week goes to CSA. If you then pay your council tax, medical/dental, and the reduction in other benefits because you are working it don't leave a lot left. So lets say the child gets £360.00 per month, wish I could have that as an adult!!!!!!!!!!!! Another one joining the dole queue as it don't pay to work anymore! I had a personal monthly arrangement which I had been paying, now the mum with get £5 per week from CSA, and since the child does not want anything to do with me, no contact then it's all they deserve. MY ADVICE: Don't have children.

Listen to this i have a son 17 and a daughter 15 whom i was paying their mother payments direct into her bank, in may last year she decided to throw our 15yr old daughter out to satisfy the wishes of her 52yr old boyfriend, so i drove the 400miles and brought her home with us, she is now settled in school and doing ok. At the time i informed my ex that my payments should reduce and made an offer she refused and handed matters to the csa, so immediatley i made a counter claim for my daughter this was in june, as my wages had to be assesed i ceased payments and put them to one side untill i knew the amount i was paying, my first payment was 1st of december last year a weekly amount, her first payment of £5 a week was october 19th last year paid at £10 a fortnight. Now ive had the phone call about my arrear..thats fine...but when i asked about her arrears she doesent have to pay as she is on benefits..what!!, i know this is wrong, but not to worry it is pennies any how, but i recall the csa woman telling me back in june that if my ex is claiming benefit jointley with her partner i would only get £2.50 a week...i recieve £5.. funny how her boyfriend always answers the phone when i call to speak to my son? obviousley shes claiming on her own? i have never grassed anybody in my life, but i will have great pleusure in filling in all the benefit cheat forms and give her a hard time for a change, she wont throw my child on the street just because a lover moves in and decides he doesent get on with my daughter, she deserves all she gets!

I have been fighting since 2009 with the CSA regarding arrears they say I owe. After involving my MP and speaking to a manager it was reduced from £4000 to about £1200. I am still disputing this figure as I have constantly provided proof I only owe about £400 (from when I was paying legal fees to actually get to see my daughter I stupidly stopped paying maintenance) Anyway, my wife phoned Child Maintenance Options today for advice. After explaining the situation to the guy on the phone he says that from the sounds of it the CSA have not acted properly throughout the whole affair. He says that a signed letter I sent in October 2010 by myself and ex partner stating we had a mutual agreement should have closed my case. Instead they kept it open. Then, by phoning my ex partner up a year later telling her I owed over £3000 in arrears and did she want it collected but would have to end our mutual agreement, this also shouldn't have happened. Has anyone else heard of the case being closed when the parents are happy to pay each other? Also, due to the CSA then barging in a year after being told we were happy with our arrangement, they ended my relationship with my daughter and had my ex laughing all the way to the bank (despite most of the arrears being for money I had already paid!)

Hi all im new to this so bear with me. I have 2 children who live with thier dad. I dont have any access to them....the reasons are another story. What i wanted to know is i live with my partner who has his daughter every 4 days and her mum has her 4 days etc. I know that if i was to have a child with my partner then my payments would reduce but is this the case with me living with mypartner and being partly responsible with his daughter? Thanks for amy help you can give

Does anyone know what address of the CSA I would serve a Small Claim at? They seem to be reluctant to give me one apart from their complaints address which I have already written to and am getting nowhere. Please Note The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only. I would always urge to seek face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action. Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

Hi It appears the csa do not care for the fact im being paid relocation money when the office moved premise. Im now doing 120 miles a day, 600 miles a week,33,000 business miles on my own vehicle This money was just paying for my fuel (let alone the wear and tear) - now the csa have caught on, theyve upped the payments i have to make Is this allowed? Its not actual income or overtime but money to compensate me for the move

Hi , i need some advice for my brother He had a one night stand about 8 yrs approx. Resulting in this woman getting pregnant. She found out he was living with my parents at the time. My brother bit of a lad i suppose, nice bmw bit of money at the time. He has never had contact with child, seen or anything. CSA have been persuing him for all of the 8 yrs. I know the moral things and unhappy he didnt protect himself, but it does take 2 to tango, The mother is living a life on benefits and apparently has 3 kids 3 different fathers (lucky them). My brother since has had 3 kids with his partner and has since bought his home outright. He is self employed, although he now works 3 days a week or less due to recession and construction industry. He has always refused dna testing, as much as i think he should, if im paying for a child at least know your the parent. CSA have assumed he is, so a few wks ago an ccj order of £2550 has been put on home, with a further 28k looking set to also go on separately (i dont know ins and outs of it all and dont understand the separate amounts) He's a bunny in headlights, and is thinking of changing the deed of his home into his partners name (they arent married, been together 7 yrs and have 3 kids together) His partner has in no way contributed to the mortgage, he has paid it all. Ive tried to advise that this isnt really a good idea having had my husband walk out on me of 21 yrs, i trust no one, and once the house is in his name he would have no legal right over it, and i can see him loosing that too. He has run away from this for a long time, i know that, it was never going to go away, the CSA dont care he has 3 other kids to support either. There was mention of evicting him out of house after 28 days, can they do that???... I want him to contest the dna now, as who knows she might have already been pregnant at the time, he didnt know her, it wasnt her first child, if someones quick enough to drop knickers at least protect yourself, and she says she is catholic, well catholics shouldnt have sex out of marriage???...thats no excuse in the UK, im catholic, and if i wanted to be promicuos id at least be making sure id not be getting pregnant! No excuse now, if he is father, but they hound him, hes had a good job and hes being made to pay for something he didnt have a choice in!. is it too late to do a dna now? its a 50/50 chance, they outcome wouldnt change if he is father but it has huge benefits if hes not.

I ampursuing my ex for maintenance payments and the last payment received was backin June 2012 for £5, his benefit had stopped so since then i have contacted theCSA on numerous occasions to obtain a new payment plan, they kept saying timeand time again that they are running checks to see if he is obtaining benefitsor working but nothing ever came back from benefits or HMRC so once again icontacted them this week to find out what was going on as he must have a sourceof income whether it be benefit or from wages, they advised me that they hadexplored all avenues and there was no records for them to pursue and that allcontact they had attempted to make had been ignored (letters, calls etc) due tothis they was going to put my claim on hold, i was not happy with this sodecided to research myself and find that on his twitter account since back inJune he had been added tweets such as 'up early for work' 'just on me break'etc, further delving I found his place of work so i immediately called csa toprovide them with these details but i have now lost faith in them as thesedetails should of been something they should be able to obtain via the hmrc ashe has a full time position and paying tax but yet the csa since June have comeback with nothing, is there anything else i can do to speed this case up as idont really want to wait for the csa to move on this at their usual slow pace,also i dont see/speak with the ex in question so no-way of dealing between usalone. Thanks any help will be greatly received.

Hi all Long story short, ex husband has a gorgeous son with an ex girlfriend. he's not allowed to see him, SHE insisted that she wants nothing else to do with us as a family or her son to see his dad. We have tried and failed to change her mind. Ex hubby has paid what he can, and looks after our two girls very well...although we both went through bankurptcy in the last 5 years and are still just above the breadline. We have been constantly harassed by the csa, when hubby was on benefits last year and now we are trying to start a business. Its a ltd company and once again we've been served with a csa letter asking for personal returns, profit and loss account, profits from shares and any other income. ALL to be signed by a registered accountant!! (which we don't have! - define registered??) I work for a government agency, so this is all very upsetting. i am also director of the company and we have made no profits for the last 2 years, taken no wages or paid any dividends. We are living off minimal expenses and my part time job. How can the CSA insist on accounts being signed by a registered accountant? Can they insist on the company accounts even though i am majority shareholder? We will happily pay..when we have some money!! At the moment i have £15 in my pocket and £15 in the business account! How can they assess him on money that hasn't and CAN'T be paid out to him?? Any advice would be gratefully received. I'm also being personally harrassed by the woman as she insists on sending me poisonous letters (unsigned of course).

A friend of mine has just put in a CSA claim against her ex husband. He sent her a text today 'thanking' her for the claim as it reduces his income enough for him and his new partner to receive tax credits. Am I right in thinking that the CSA claim doesn't affect tax credits in any way? I'm not sure

i received a court summonse for a liability order for the sum of 6500.00.. i went to court on 18 june 2012 to defend this as i disputed the amount due to wrongly being assessed , period of unemployement/and self employed earnings well it got adjourned and the judge said it was so the csa could prove i owed that amount and for me to prove that i didnt, i also had put appeals into the csa too. from 2009 to 2012 and they said they could change anything back then , they basicaly fobbed me off, well since the court became involved i have had my appeal looked at and the csa have made adjustments from 56.00 per week to 5.00 per week for the period of unemployement, they are also going to make a further change from 56.00 per wk to 9.00 per wk for self employement period, anyway i went back to court in july only to have it adjourned again as the csa still had not got there figures and had not done an account breakdown, this was adjourned till 20/812 (tomorrow).. now the cpo rang me on friday to say he was going to ask for an adjournment again as they still had not done it and i had recieved no account breakdown, he also stated that i dont have to go as it would waste my time, he also stated this last time i went , but i turned up.. what i am asking is can i go to court tomorrow and have this liability order thrown out as they still have no figure of what i supposedly owe, this is just a basic outline of the case that i have been fighting for 3 half years, i have also been making volutary payments into the pwc bank account.

I have a minor problem with bailiffs appointed by the CSA. Firstly I have made a complaint (form 4) about the behaviour of the bailiff, after he told me to stop playing games when I asked for a copy of the order which gave him authority to act. Secondly, I think his fees are not quite in accordance with the regulations, if due at all. Short story is the CSA claimed to have a court order against me obtained in March. I knew nothing about this until a bailiff firm contacted me. I have since paid the sum claimed as due, following a letter from CSA saying what was acceptable to them as settlement. The bailiff firm claim that settlement did not include their fees. I have it in writing from them that the Enforcement regulations allow them to charge £67.44, but they are looking to add communication charges and rounding up, which is 'as agreed with the CSA by them' I am now under threat of a claim for costs as a result of the form 4 complaint. So, two questions:- 1. Can a bailiff claim costs if a form 4 complaint is not upheld? 2. How do you settle a small amount dispute on costs? County court fee for assessment is £325 I am told, which is excessive for a £10 dispute.

hi im really having problems with csa and tribunal service. there have been so many counts of incompetence that im thinking of taking this further and seeking legel advice but i need advice from others who may have been treated this way. this is whats happened, the csa contacted me at the back end of last year telling me i was entitled to over £8,000 in arrears for my 2 children who are now 27yrs and19yrs so the arrears go back to late 90,s. i told them i wasnt entitled to any money because id been a single parent on benefit and then since 2001 id been disabled of work so i was still in reciept of benefit so any monies owed had to go back to the state, they then told me that due to a change in the law it was my money and they were in the process of securing a payment from my ex. i had been getting £11 per mth for the past couple of years as my daughter was in further education and i was get tax credits so i assumed that it was all to do with that and that was the end of it with the csa until they got in touch about the arrears. in january 2012 i started to recieve payments and they continued until the beginning of march 2012 then stopped without any warning and in total id recieved £2,030 from the csa, when i contacted them to find out whats going on they told me the following, the original weekly calculation had not been done the correct way and that the person dealing with my case came up with the figure off the top of there head and this was what was quoted to me over the phone from the csa officer i was dealing with, she told me that my ex had appealed this and it was her job to put it right. she told me because it was the csa fault they had to by law squash all arrears and that i was to pay back all money id recieved. i straight away appealed this because as far as im concerned im not paying it back and i totally disagree with there decision, they made me feel that both i and my children was worthless and my abusive ex would get off scott free. over several phone conversations with this woman she told me that many mistakes had been made such as- didnt check the work details my ex provided to see he was telling the truth no periodic yearly checks were done, i only ever heard from csa once in a blue moon over the years. tribunal service lost our paper work for over 2yrs which prevented checks etc. now on 31st aug i had to attend a hearing at oxford and me and my ex met with a judge to addresss the situation, the judge did say at the hearing that it was wrong to squash the arrears and that my children was entitled to some money and she sent my ex of to basically fill in the gaps of the time line to do with where he,d workd,lived and how much rent he used to pay etc so they can revise the weekly amount and work out just how much he owes in arreas and as to whether i,ll be getting any money, she adjured our case and im waiting for a new date. since then ive been informed that the judge wasnt even dealing with my case she was working from my ex,s appeal which as you know had been dealt with and id appealed there desicion, the csa said they were going to bring it to the judges attension and i just got to si tback and wait to see what happens next so i think you can see nobody at the csa or the tribunal service seems to know what the hell there doing, the csa did deposit £100 into my bank account as an admission of ther failings towards me and the csa person i spoke to told me that she wasnt happy to do what she did but the laws the law. di really appreciate any advice because i am feeling abit lost and have no one to talk to about what to do next etc thankyou for taking the time to read this.

Just wondering if anyone has come across this before: About 3 months ago I got a call off the CSA wanting to discuss my change in income I had reported by phone about 2 weeks previous - I had made no such phone call. The advisor then put me on hold and when he came back apologised and said it was to do with a letter - but the only letter I had written was about me disputing my arrears. I just got a phone call about 20 minutes ago, again asking me about my change in income that I have reported. This phone call had seemingly been made at the end of July - explained to advisor I hadn't phoned, she put me on hold, then came back saying I had definitely phoned twice about my income. To prove my point I then phoned them, and without knowing when the case was started and getting my daughter's age wrong I somehow passed security! (I did this on purpose to see what happened) Now I have found out my ex partner has been with a new partner for about 3-4 months, will know my national insurance number from her bank statements and that is all they seem to ask for apart from her name and daughter's name, which she obviously knows. How can I find out if she has been trying to do something to the case like increase my income details or something? She has lied to them already about the arrears I really don't put this past her

Hello, if i anybody could help i would be most grateful. In approx 2007 my current partners ex wife claimed income support and was made to claim CSA from my partner, he was already at this time and has never stopped paying her direct weekly. Due to us moving alot, the CSA lost contact with us and nothing else was heard. until in about 2010 when a lady visited our house from criminal investgations at the CSA. Now my boyfriend has kept every reciept from the payments he has made into her account, but he didnt give them to the CSA for fear that she would get in trouble because she had claimed benefits for spells during the time the CSA were requesting payment so he didnt tell them and foolishly hoped it would go away. He has always and will always pay for his children but he quite rightly didnt want to pay twice. So it got to the point where he was interviewed under caution and he had to show the reciepts proving he had paid, so that was fine, his ex wife spoke to them and told them that she was happy for the money to be classed as payment for that period and then accept direct payments thereafter. BUT the CSA are still pursuing us for payments that shouldve been taken before the money reached her due to the fact that she was claiming benefits for some of the time. so the CSA are now calling me and my partner up to 30 times a day asking for payment of nearly £1000 by card!!! i dont see this as fair as this isnt going to his kids but to the secretary of state and hes already paid what he shouldve paid anyway. could anybody advise me on where to go from here. if anything i think it should be his ex wifes debt.

HI, ive been paying child support for my son and daughter for 10yrs now, my son is 16 and daughter 15, recently my daughter moved in with me and is at school i have paid privately without csa, but soon as i asked for £5 a week off my ex wife for my daughter she went up in arms and decided to go through the csa, my son is 400 miles away, and i travel 264 miles per week to work, ive heard of variations, so i need advice, if she can be funny so can i, ive paid all those years, all the travel costs to see them in that time,no help from my ex and i ask for a fiver as she is on some benefits or other..how tight!

My son decided to go and live with his father a month ago,as he is 15, the choice was basically his., fair enough. the ex left in 2010. and now lives with his gf, I never went to CSA , because as much as we fought, ( verbally ) he payed the mortgage and a loan we had on the house, and he kept telling me he was paying way over the top anyway, Yesterday morning ( Sat,) i had a call from the CSA saying that the ex has now put in a claim and they have told me that i need to pay £22.29 per week, which i am fuming about, mainly because him and his gf earn about £90,000 together , i earn about £6,000 I am disabled and am unable to work more hours, By him asking for that what do i then use to treat my son to when he is with me because i wont get anymoney for him , Is that fair ??????? and is that right???

Hi there, i,m a new user and would like some help regaurding the c.s.a. I would like to know if there is a way to get information like attendance records from college, stating when the student left. i know that the student left college last October and went into helping out at the british heart foundation, i have looked into this and spoken to the job center plus who told me that if a student leaves full time education that the child benefit should stop, which it has,nt. My husband has an appeal date to go back to court and put his side of the story to the court regaurding money that he owes to the csa. But, the college will not release the attendance records for his daughter to the court as our proof that she left college last October, i have gone down all the routes and made the nessesary phone calls to child benefit and the csa regaurding this and the just don,t want to know, and keep passing the buck. The college have already told me that my step daughter left college last October, but will not release the nessasary paper work for our proof, which we need for court in august. Please Please any help would be a big help, so far i have won half the battle with the csa, i just need to win the last half, it has been a long hard slog with them, and i,ve done every-thing by the book and done a lot of the paperwork myself, i,m just stuck on this last hurdle, and i,m sure that when we go back to court the judge will ask the csa to go and do there home work properly and sort it out, as like i,ve said i,ve done most of it myself cause the child benefit and the csa have just been passing the buck to each other. So any help or advice would be a great help to me right now. Thank You

Hi, I need some advice on the possibility of getting a refund for payments taken by the Child Support Agency. It has recently come to light that my ex partner had made a claim under a pseudonym comprised of her middle name and her mothers maiden name. My case goes back to 2002 where i was contacted by the CSA for maintenance payments for my child that i was already looking after and paying towards. It caused a huge row between me and my ex and i made sure that i complied with the CSA as much i could and i was assured that i would receive my money back should it found that i was fulfilling my duties as a father financially. This went on for some time and i was being stung for the maximum rate applicable for a few months up until i was made redundant. I had gone through a couple of different jobs over the next two years after losing my job where this all started and they never had the chance to catch up with me and to be honest, i was glad that i hadn't had to deal with them. Anyway, late last year they got in touch with me stating i owed them a little over £2000 and that they wanted to know my work status. I replied to them that i didn't owe anything like that and that, if anything, they owed me for money that wasn't even due. They sent me the details of whom the money was supposed to be paid to and i couldn't believe it when i read that the claimant on file was in fact my ex but she was using her middle name and the maiden name of her mother. In fact, the only truthful thing on the paperwork i had received was her date of birth, my sons name and his date of birth. I replied to them telling them that i had no knowledge of whom the name of the parent was, other than it was a combination of her middle name and mothers maiden name, and that the only correct piece of information on the paperwork was my sons name and d.o.b. I even informed them that even though me and my ex had split, i was still living in the home up until my son was 8 or 9 years old and that i was paying bills in the house as normal. It may also be worth mentioning that she was also benefit cheating and was claiming as living as a single parent. The realisation of how far this could have gone had only hit home when i was reading the paperwork that had been sent by the CSA. Since giving the CSA this information i have heard nothing from them since February this year. In fact, as far as i know they haven't even bothered to investigate my ex and the fraudulent claims that she made against me and the benefit. My question is, what is the likelihood of reclaiming the money that was taken by the CSA, from the CSA, for something that was untrue and what can i do to stop them from pursuing me? I'm not even sure that i could report my ex to the police for fraud and whether it would even be investigated. I'd like to get my money back and actually use it for my sons benefit. Especially now that he's going to start college this year.