csa

hello,
the csa started my case as off the 25th march this year,as this was when they got in touch with my stbx.
i was informed my payments would start 24th april and for the next 2 weeks would include the arrears but the payments would always be a week behind...fair enough
i phoned them today as no money been put in bank was told that they have started a deductions enforcements from his wages and that his work has until the 19th of this month to start this ok i said then....surprise surprise came the bombshell the csa wont be paid until the 19th june.
so if his work dont take anymoney till the 19th may i get nothing.

i know this doesnt sound a big deal but ive been put of claiming for 7 1/2 years as everytime i went to claim maintance i got a beating[long story so not going to bore you with it]
so if they dont collect any money for the 19th i dont get any money on the 19th june.well 3-5 days after this.

no wonder the csa get called everything under the sun.im so peed of how can this be legal?
any thoughts?????????
n3w

I can only sympathise. 13 weeks is pretty much standard for setting up payments. It seems it takes a month to assess a non compliant NRP's income, then the payment is deducted on the first monthly pay day and it takes another month to reach the CSA and be paid to you. Sorry.

number3wife
I learned not to rely on payments from the CSA. My ex is self-employed and clearly lives beyond what he says is his true income. Currently I've been waiting for 16 months, the bailiffs have been called in to deal with the debt but he pretends he's not in! Next step, forced sale of his house, probably another 16 months! Previous payment was achieved through bailiffs too. Thankfully my adolescent boys have long since stopped wanting to stay over, so selling his house is not a problem for them.
Don't get wound up about him not paying, I always think my ex spouses actions reaffirm all the reasons I divorced him and that I'm thankful I did!

as a vaguely amusing ancedote about the CSA, thought you might be interested in a conversation I had with them recently. I made a claim in March - have had various conversations since with the south east office since that is where I live and who were dealing with things.

Called them last week - greeted with an 'oh, you're not being dealt with us by now, it's the South West office'. I sighed, very heavily - assuming that things were a total mess already (their reputation really does preceed them, doesn't it?!).

Phoned South West office - explained what had happened and asked why they were now dealing with me. The lady laughed and said, actually, you're not even through to the South West office, that's in Plymouth - you've been put through to Taunton, we're the non-compliant businessmen's office!

Then it got more depressing - she looked at the details (I could almost see her shaking her head at her computer) and said 'you'll never get any money from this one, seen it all before....!'

Her honesty was very refreshing and made me smile for the rest of the day (although really, it's horribly depressing).

Jaw - I look forward to the next few years - do keep me updated on your experiences as I think I'll be following very closely in your footsteps....

My smypathies everyone - I share your frustration! I applied to CSA in Feb and since then my claim has been passed between three offices. Each one lost information that I sent about contact (STBX is seeking a variation), so I have now sent this three times. Somewhere in the process I was told that they could not deal with the claim on the computer and it had "gone clerical" (reason and meaning unclear). There was a three week period when I was ringing constantly and could not find out who was dealing with it. I kept being told things like, "You've rung the third floor and you need the sixth"??? One day I phoned and the man who answered told me that a colleague of his had been trying to ring me the previous day. Thinking that at last I had found someone who was dealing with it, I then asked him to leave the person a message to call me. He then asked me for my name. To which I replied, "How can you know your colleague was trying to ring me if you don't even know who is calling?" An embarrassed silence followed by nervous laughter was the response. Last week they finally admitted they had lost the file entirely and were going to do a "stop and search", where they stop business and make everyone hunt for the file (sounds quite fun if there's a prize?) Then on Monday I was told the search had not been successful so they have to collect all of the paperwork, wage slips etc, again. So I'm now in the same position as in February.

"Go straight to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect your child maintenance..."

i totally sympathise with you, 12 months since i started my csa case, and now i am told its gone 'clerical' like i kn ow what that means, and apparenlty cos my ex has so many kids with different women the system caqnt cope with it, so chin up and i hope they get it sorted, but to be henoest i wouldnt rely n money from the csa and if u do eventually get it suppose its a bonus for you.