Consent Orders vs CSA

Hi, I got divorced in Feb 2010 and had a Consent Order that covered property and child maintenance. I have 3 children and am the non resident parent. Basically if you could read this letter that I intend to post to the CSA and show my solicitor (not yet appointed one). This covers the general information. Any feedback as to what might be the ruling would help me as I am losing the will to live.

Case Reference :

Dear Sir / Madam,

May I please express how disgusted I am with the current system and bullying tactics employed by your agency towards myself.
I am currently at the mercy of your ‘machine’ steamrollering me into submission. My ex partner accepted a consent order detailing property, child maintenance, shared debts and a personal loan.

My ex partner ( and her solicitor) accepted the agreement that the property ( and huge equity) would go solely into her name – primarily to keep a roof over her and the children’s heads and to keep them into the lifestyle they had been accustomed to, whereas I would take on the reduced maintenance payment of 200 pounds a month and take on all the debts ( inc over 10000 pounds in credit card debt that was used to develop the home she lives in ).
In effect this was exactly what she and her solicitor were fighting for, ‘cash up front’ rather than the full maintenance payments throughout the lives of the children. This was made abundantly clear by Ms. ****** that that was what she wanted.

The consent order was stamped by the court in Feb 2010. I believed that a consent order was the law, as did every single person I have come into contact with. However at the end of September 2010, I got a letter from the CSA demanding me to be assessed for child maintenance, to say I was shocked was an understatement. I then spoke to a CSA staff member on the phone who informed me that consent orders should not have child maintenance arrangements on them, as the CSA would over rule them!
However, the staff member informed me that they would still be legal until twelve months from the date of the divorce, i.e. February 2010, so as not to worry until Feb 2011. The CSA asked for a copy of the consent order, which I duly sent by recorded delivery. This was received but not even acknowledged by the CSA. I then received a letter dated 5th November 2010 stating that I had been assessed and that an absurd figure of £520 a month had been reached that I will have to pay.

I believe the Claim made by Ms. A***** and her solicitor to be scandalous, I believe the CSA to be incompetent, arrogant, and wholly immoral and devoid of any emotions towards the father in which a decision could be made on a whim that could potentially ruin his life, chances of renting (never mind buying) a home and ever giving his children the life and love that they deserve.
The CSA has refused to acknowledge my phone calls, my letters and my appeals against the decision.
I believe this to be illegal and wholly immoral.

A copy of this will be sent to my local MP and my solicitor in a bid to close this legal loophole of consent orders not being a wholly legal document, i.e. the property section and the debt payment section being legal, however the child maintenance not being legal. If it wasn’t legal, how was it ever stamped by the court as a legal part of the consent order? Also your staff member informing me that it would be lawful and not within your jurisdiction for a minimum of twelve months from February 2010, however you are demanding payment from 30/09/10.

I await your response with interest,

Yours Sincerely,

Mr D A******

I would tone it down. The people who get the letter have no control over the sytem or the rules, and the bits about the CSA being arrogant etc make this look like a rant - it makes it easier for them to dismiss you as a nutter rathe than actually acknowledging or responding to the valid issues which you are raising.

I would aim for a more businesslike tone.

Set out the dates of any previous letter s sent, and phone call made etc which have not been replied to, incidents of conflicting or inaccurate inforamtion being given etc.

Focus on the specific errors or failures of the CSA, not the behaviour of your ex wife or your views about the system itself. They can't change that.

Your consent order is a written agreement which means that the CSa should not have accepted an appliation from your ex for the first 12 months - that is the key point you need to make, and to ask specifically for them to confirm that the current assesment will be cancelled and the file marked to nore that no applciation shoud be accepted until Febryuary 2011.

At that point you may have grounds to apply for a variation if you are paying debts accrued in the marriage.

However, the CSA is not responsible for the deal you reached with your ex or for your not realisingthat this would, so far as child maintece is concerned, be effective only for the first 12 months.

If you do write to your MP then you can raise with him or her the issues with the way the sysyem is set up, but again, I would try very hard for a calm, businesslike tone if you want your letter to be taken seriously.

BTW, I would suggest you edit your post as you have left your Wife's surname in the draft letter

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I know the tone needs to be changed, was an initial draft to highlight the facts.

I have just been on the phone to the CSA who have stated that in a nutshell, the consent order had to go to a complex adjudications team to assess validity of the child maint part of it.
Its ILLEGAL according to them. Therefore CSA have jurisdiction and can over rule it. They said that that part is a maintenance order on the consent order!! I only signed for a consent order, I am going to dispute with a solicitor as it is absoluteley outrageous, even the csa staff member said it appears a massive stitch up by her. Its all very complex, he didnt understand it so theres no chance I would.
I am in Absolute turmoil over this as, if this is the case, I already owe over 1200 pounds and rising quickly by the day

Danny, I can appreciate your frustrations. As a PWC who deals with them on a regular basis (non-paying, self-employed ex), I can assure you that sometimes, you have to go from person to person to make sense of anything. The way NOT to deal with them is to get their backs up. I mean, imagine if you worked for the CSA, getting NRPs phoning you daily screaming about why should they have to pay and PWC screaming about where's their money, there's children who need feeding....and them stuck in the middle trying to do their best with what appears a sub-standard computer system and more than one set of 'how to calculate child maintenance' rules on the go...It's not in their job description that they should take abuse from the public. Yet they do, constantly.

The way to deal with them is to be polite but insistent - and by insistent, I mean phone every day if you need to until you get the paperwork in your hands. Pointing out their obvious failings isn't going to help! And remember like any organisation, there are people who are good at their jobs and those who are not so good - I opened a case in April 2009 and it is only now that I am dealing with someone I have a bit of faith in (she was assigned to me in September).

Good luck with it.

As you have found out it isn't possible to offset child support against capital. Did you take independent legal advice before agreeing and signing the consent order?

If you speak to someone at the CSA who does not know about the twelve month rule I would refer them to the CSA literature
(eg www.cmoptions.org/en/options/courts.asp ) and demand to speak to someone more senior and better trained.

I have just logged on to read your case and you have my support. I got divorced in 2001 and the circumstances are exactly the same except the debt I took on was higher. I got called by the CSA in Jan 2010 and told they were assessing me and despite me & muy lawyer advising them we had paid up front they rule they could ignore that and enforce a monthly pyment of £800, as much as some mortgages for a 15 1/2 year old who never sees any of it I have been fighting ever since through every avenue but the aim of the CSA appears to be to nail any decent father for whatever cash they can get. My ex declared herself & her new husband Bankrupt for £300K + last year and I am paying for it 10 years on. She is protected by the CSA and they refuse to get details of what he moneyis spent on. This is morally wrong. I hope you had better success than me

Was child maintenance included in a consent order and if so when was it dated? The CSA has no jurisdiction when child maintenance was included in court orders made before March 2003. If your order predates that again I suggest you demand to speak to someone more senior and better trained.