Child Support Agency Querie

[Salmon Man]

A few years ago the CSA wrote to tell me that I owed them £5k odds for one year's contributions for my son from an estranged ex. The £5k was from a few years previously, in amongst the period where they lost their records.

I challenged this, and was given short shrift treatment. I asked for a break down of their calculation. They refused. I wrote a letter of complaint. They replied from a team who assess complaints, and decided it did not merit being escalated to the complaint's team. So, my complaint and right to complaint was vetted and thrown out.

I have asked for a reassessment and have been told that I was "uncooperative" back in the day, so gave up all my legal rights.

How can this be?

They would not accept my offer of £50 a month and sought an AofEO for £300 a month. I contacted them and they gave me a grace period of a month at Christmas, and agreed to reduce my payments to £200 a month.

What rights do I have?

[Salmon Man]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

The point of reassessment is that they have charged me the full rate, whatever percentage of my wage that was back in the day, even though I would have been entitled to a far lesser contribution due to my earnings and outgoings at the time, but rather than being "uncooperative" as they claim, I just never heard from them. They know fine well this is the case, that they lost their records, then in desperation scraped together what they could and fired it out to unsuspecting fathers. I can't get anything from them at all now.

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

Get your MP to take this up n your behalf.

[Salmon Man]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

Get your MP to take this up n your behalf.

Thanks, I guess I really need that level of representation as for years I've been getting nowhere with them.

[PlanB]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

A few years ago the CSA wrote to tell me that I owed them £5k odds for one year's contributions for my son from an estranged ex. The £5k was from a few years previously, in amongst the period where they lost their records.

. . . . I have asked for a reassessment and have been told that I was "uncooperative" back in the day, so gave up all my legal rights.

How can this be?

Have you lost or been denied contact with your son or chosen not to take responsibility for him as his father?

[Salmon Man]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

I went to court, firstly to establish paternity. Then things got really difficult. Her new boyfriend stood in the court (at access hearing) and told a pack of lies about me. Quite fanciful stuff, such as me putting a shot gun in his mouth. He went the full hog and described how he p!$hed his pants in fear etc... He had never met me, nor seen me before then.

Prior to this I had also opened a savings account, an endowment policy or such like, with LV or Liverpool Victoria as they liked to be known 19 years ago, and they cancelled the policy and returned my premiums as I wasn't the father, at that time. I don't know how that worked. I still don't know how they knew anything about the details.

All contribution cheques, birthday and Christmas gifts were returned to both myself and my family with sarcastic notes.

Despite my parents both being social workers, mum is a senior social work manager, after a family gathering with the court appointed Child Psychologist, her report concluded that we were not conducive to the preferred family environment, and based on that report, access was denied.

I did what I could. To be honest, it sent me off the rails with depression for years. I was angry and bitter and this must have been apparent to the sheriff who, in his ruling, claimed this was evident in court, and this was another reason to deny me access to see my son. I had just stood and and listened to the ex's new boyfriend spout a pile of doodah about me, and when I gave my evidence I was in bits.

Against my wishes, my family persuaded me that things were best left to lie as they were.

I last seen him when he was five months old, when out of the blue she told me at a bus stop... "yes, have a hold of him, it will be the last time you see him"

And off she went... I found him on a social networking site when he was thirteen or so, and I waited until his sixteenth birthday, then made contact.

Ironically, he was staying at his grandmother's after she rescued him from a care home. His mother threw him on the streets at fifteen, expelled from school, all because he did not get on with the new boyfriend. Another new boyfriend. The one who made up the lies was long gone, sectioned with Schizophrenia after too many drug fueled benders. His mother finally snapped when the laddie was constantly having fisticuffs with the new guy because the laddie got caught stealing cocaine from a safe in the mother's bedroom.

You could not make this up.

I felt I had a lot of making up to do when I met my son at 16. I was wrong. There was never any way of making up what was lost. I learned that through time.

I paid what was asked of me, years before any AofEO, years before the CSA lost their files. To this day they cannot tell me what I have contributed over the years. They just don't have the records.

So, I lost my son, but never gave him up.

[Salmon Man]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

I feel I should also point out that it was cooperation with the CSA, or in their view a lack of cooperation, which we're discussing.

Even if I had abandoned my son, it makes no difference in Scots Law as we're all still treated the same no matter what the circumstances, and besides, there is no legal connection between paternal rights and monetary contributions. They are two completely separate issues (my then solicitor pointed out) so IMHO has no merit to the discussion.

[PlanB]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

I challenged this, and was given short shrift treatment. I asked for a break down of their calculation. They refused. I wrote a letter of complaint. They replied from a team who assess complaints, and decided it did not merit being escalated to the complaint's team. So, my complaint and right to complaint was vetted and thrown out.

If your complaint has been rejected then you can refer it to the Independant Case Examiner for assessment. The service is free and not part of the CSA. You also have the option to refer it to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman which normally expects you to have exhausted the Independant Examiner's process first. In each case your MP can make the referral. Here's some information for you:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum.../dg_198866.pdf


One thing to bare in mind is that if it's decided that there was an overcalculation (and you are being overcharged) then there is risk that the CSA will attempt to recover the payments they have already made from the mother of your son.

The CSA rules are the same in Scotland as the rest of the UK although enforcement is different.

[Salmon Man]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

If your complaint has been rejected then you can refer it to the Independant Case Examiner for assessment. The service is free and not part of the CSA. You also have the option to refer it to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman which normally expects you to have exhausted the Independant Examiner's process first. In each case your MP can make the referral. Here's some information for you:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum.../dg_198866.pdf


One thing to bare in mind is that if it's decided that there was an overcalculation (and you are being overcharged) then there is risk that the CSA will attempt to recover the payments they have already made from the mother of your son.

The CSA rules are the same in Scotland as the rest of the UK although enforcement is different.

Thank you for the link.

My son's mother probably never received a penny of what was deducted from me, as she was on benefits, has always been on benefits, and will never work.

Why would she need to? Her new man is a Q.S. with a safe in the bedroom full of cocaine. There I go ranting again. LOL

[PlanB]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

I felt I had a lot of making up to do when I met my son at 16. I was wrong. There was never any way of making up what was lost. I learned that through time.


So, I lost my son, but never gave him up.

Your story is so sad but it could still have a happy ending

My daughter chose not to see her absent father for a decade despite my attempts to keep them in touch. At around 16 years old she turned to him when I was giving her a hard time for her bad behaviour (drugs). Then when she straightened herself out she would ricochet between the most lenient parent. You may not have lost your son for good and there's probably never a day that goes by without him thinking of you.

I wish you luck with your relationship with your son because that's more important than money any day :hug:

[Salmon Man]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

Your story is so sad but it could still have a happy ending

My daughter chose not to see her absent father for a decade despite my attempts to keep them in touch. At around 16 years old she turned to him when I was giving her a hard time for her bad behaviour (drugs). Then when she straightened herself out she would ricochet between the most lenient parent. You may not have lost your son for good and there's probably never a day that goes by without him thinking of you.

I wish you luck with your relationship with your son because that's more important than money any day :hug:

Thank you for your caring comments. Things are not perfect in my relationship with my son. I can't condone his recreational drug habits, and had to bar him from turning up at my house under the influence after he did so one time. His eyes were rolling around his head and my other two teenagers were not impressed, nor was I.

I felt it was my duty to protect my younger two from seeing this sort of behaviour, and he took offence to this and never turned up for his 18th Birthday party which our family laid on for him.

It's very difficult, but at least now I know where he is, how he is doing, and that he is okay. I helped him when we first got together, with careers advice ( he has no school qualifications and speaks like a gutter snipe) and we got him funding on a community program where he obtained his counter balance fork lift license, and he has a job with this. He's now driving, with his own car, living in his own wee flat with his big husky type dog, and his wee girlfriend.

I am patiently waiting on the day he finally grows up and comes back to us with a better attitude. He knows my door is always open when he needs me, but he was abusing this with 7am weekend wake up phone calls demanding I drive miles to where he lay off his face with a cooked breakfast for him. **** taking little radge, LOL. Of course I refused, and away in a huff he went again.

In the meantime we regularly chat through social media, as this is less confrontational for us both.

[PlanB]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

I am patiently waiting on the day he finally grows up and comes back to us with a better attitude. He knows my door is always open when he needs me, but he was abusing this with 7am weekend wake up phone calls demanding I drive miles to where he lay off his face with a cooked breakfast for him. **** taking little radge, LOL. Of course I refused, and away in a huff he went again.

My idea of heaven is a 7 am wake-up call from my daughter now that I'm in my twilight years. Every second counts once you've got a bus pass

[Salmon Man]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

My idea of heaven is a 7 am wake-up call from my daughter now that I'm in my twilight years. Every second counts once you've got a bus pass

Point taken. I'm 42 this year and the years are flying by.

[Inca]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

My lad is 24,,i raised him alone after Daddy thought the call to arms' meant he needed to share his todger out amongst so called friends of mine. He rarely,if ever ,bothers with his Dad now. CSA wanted £500 pcm off him,,and back then that was 50% of his take home pay which was ridiculous,he still had to live.So I bit the bullet,,signed off the CSA claim and got...............£20 a week!! Yep,,he royally screwed me but know he pays the price by a son who really can't be bothered with him and knows what a miser he is/was.
One joyful smack in the teeth for the ex though,his parents are comfortably off,,own their own home and have left everything to the 3 grandchildren (my boy included) Daddy dearest don't get a curtain ring

[Salmon Man]

Re: Child Support Agency Querie

My lad is 24,,i raised him alone after Daddy thought the call to arms' meant he needed to share his todger out amongst so called friends of mine. He rarely,if ever ,bothers with his Dad now. CSA wanted £500 pcm off him,,and back then that was 50% of his take home pay which was ridiculous,he still had to live.So I bit the bullet,,signed off the CSA claim and got...............£20 a week!! Yep,,he royally screwed me but know he pays the price by a son who really can't be bothered with him and knows what a miser he is/was.
One joyful smack in the teeth for the ex though,his parents are comfortably off,,own their own home and have left everything to the 3 grandchildren (my boy included) Daddy dearest don't get a curtain ring

As far as I'm aware your ex will inherit 1/3 of his parent's moveable estate when they're both passed on. I don't believe they can just cut him off like you suggest. Someone may beg to differ mind you, but I've read questions on this a hundred times in newspaper Q&A's.

The 50% rate ( I thought it was 40% or so) would have been because he didn't bother cooperating with the CSA, and hadn't filled in their paperwork. You did him a big favour which was very amicable of you. Just a pity he's a selfish twit. Doing the 'right thing' shows a great level of integrity from within yourself, as you freely admit the amounts confiscated from some fathers is one of the biggest travesties of our modern day politics.

I'm glad you had the support from his parents as well as your own family. Best of luck in life to your lad.