CSA Payments - A bit of info that may help others

I had agreed to receive CSA payments direct from my X2b. In hindsight this has proved not to have been the best decision. I appealed the CSA calulation which went in my favour and resulted in a substantial back payment due. None of the backpayment has been forthcoming and because we agreed that he would pay me direct the CSA have advised me a small claims court application would need to be made to recover the money and they only get involved in recovering backpayments if they are collecting the monies. Although my x2b has recently said he will pay back the money he wants to do it over a 12th month period. The CSA say if they were setting up a repayment schedule it would be between 2 and 4 month in this case. What can I do if he ignores my request for a shorter repayment term??

I have now requested the CSA to collect monies direct in the future to avoid this situation happening again!

Does any one else have any pros/cons to be paid direct versus the CSA collecting monies. The main con that I can see is that you will not get the monies so quickly if they go through a third party!

Hi

I get my payments direct from CSA. He is meant to pay on 19th (to them) and if I havn''t received by 26th I phone them and they chase. At first my ex messed about, but after cSA warning they would go direct to his employers he now appears to be paying at the correct time.

However, everytime I phone the cSA they ask if I would take direct payments. Not a flipping chance!!!!! Been there, done that, got the teeshirt and certainly not going there again!

So, yeah CSA are good, but you must keep on the ball, checking you have received the mney etc. etc.

Hi

Sorry to butt in on this one, but I feel sorry for your ex. He has been paying what he thought to be(quite rightly as the CSA calculated it) the correct amount and is now being told he has to pay more. I''m not sure what the substantial amount is that he owes you, but it is fair enough for him to ask for some time to pay this, it isnt his fault.
If he had deliberately underpaid or refused to pay, then fair enough, but the CSA have stitched him up in my opinion.
Don''t forget that he presumably has his own living costs to pay and sometimes money is tight with out things like this cropping up unexpected.

Hi Mdog

I think in my case there is alot more to it and if you knew more detail I am sure you would not feel sorry for him!

I believe he deliberately misrepresented his financial position to CSA which resulted in the miscalculation. The fact that the appeal went in my favour shows this to!!

He has also incurred an additional enormous debt post separation (buying a property far above need he then tried to use this debt to reduce his payments Why should the children be without things because of his actions???? The judge said similar at my FDR, if he now says he cannot afford to make payments he will need to sell it!! and cannot use it as an excuse not to pay.

I have not had a very good experience of having CSA collect direct. They only seem to work on average earnings, look at a few pay slips and take ages to sort things out. They told me they don''t work from P60s - which I think would be a fairer method.

My ex was made redundance in August and started a new job last October - I''m still waiting for any payments to materialise! He won''t pay anything to me direct - which makes me think he''s getting off light. He got 3 months pay and redundancy from his last job, but CSA won''t look at this either. Payments changed immediately he was made redundant to £5 a week and he passed to benefits agency. These payments stopped in October when he started working and I have received nothing since!

Deedum

Keep on at the CSA. My ex got a rise in October and I am still awaiting a new assessment. He sent payslips in in December, but they are still sorting it out, but of course I am still getting what he was assessed at last time.

They told me they will give me the arrears over a 3 month period.

I agree with Sillywoman. Keep on at the CSA, don''t let your case fall to the back of the pile. On appeal I was able to speak to the same case officer which helped, my x2b was saying one thing I was saying another, I phoned regularly to ensure I knew what was being said so I could correct issues. It was a hard old slog but perserverence did in the end pay off.....and finally make sure if you want to appeal you make the appeal deadline!!