to think that the csa are useless?

[huffypuffymummy]

i am thinking of contacting the csa soon as my dc's dad has stopped paying maintenance, i have offered him the chance to set up a private agreement however he has not responded to my letters.

i have spoken to various friends and colleagues who have advised me to avoid the csa at all costs! (excuse the pun)

would i be wasting my time?

My son is now 15 and ive never received a penny. I get letters every year stating that he has zero pounds to pay. Which I dont understand for the life of me. I was a single parent for 12 years, son was very very sick and I have no family and 3 jobs.

Useless wanker. Even a tenner a week would have helped me .
Hope you come to an agreement but god knows how.

that's terrible!

how these men get away with it, i don't know!
its disgusting! i was under the impression that even if they were claiming benefits they still had to pay £5 per week?

I ended up by going to the CSA and they have tried to help me. My ex partner has gone self employed, so I don't hold out much hope of ever getting anything again, but when he was employed the CSA did do an attachment of earnings on him.

I also received £200 compensation from them two weeks before Christmas one time due to the fact that they'd messed my case up a bit.

They do try to help you, but you have to keep on at them and phone every day sometimes. If your ex is employed then there's every chance they'll get some money out of him, but if he's self employed, it's very difficult.

Self employment is the Holy Grail of every deadbeat dad!!!! It also turns them into tax avoiders and criminals if they take this route.

Personally, I like the CSA and they did manage to secure payments for me for four years, which has been really valuable to me.

yes that's the problem, he is self employed but sub-contracts to big firms. also he has two surnames, i don't know his NI number and i don't think he is registered at the address he is living at either.

Yes, the CSA are absolutely terrible, but if you dont go to them, you will get absolutely nothing.

Ex works a 60 hour week and has even sworn this in court statements. Yet he claims to earn £240 per week, yes doesn't add up with the minimum wage etc. Unfortunately the CSA have just realised this despite my telling them for six months and also suggesting they actually check his salary slips for his working hours.

I asked them for a variation 24 weeks ago and they have not even got his recent wage slips yet! They are so slow that he has moved jobs again, meaning everything has to start from scratch yet again.

They have admitted to not "progressing this case as well as they ought" - understatement of the year.

However, what are your other options?

huffy, if you aren't getting any money from him anyway, even if the CSA are utter shite, what have you got to lose?

My parents avoided the CSA and had a private arrangement, because they overcharged my dad (he did overtime one year and they charged it the next) and were slow to sort out payments and update their records. I think they were taking money from him a good six months before my mum got any .

But then, my dad was always willing to pay up, so it was easier for them to sort things out privately. In your case, they can chase him for you (yes, you'll have to chase them, but at least they will be on the end of the phone I guess), and there will be a legal record of the fact that he owes you payment, or would/will do when he is earning money. And hey, if the coalition is that set to crack down on tax avoidance, then perhaps he'll have fewer places to hide from the CSA, too. (We live in hope!)

thanks for all your replies.....

i have spoken to maintenance options this morning and they were really helpful. they explained the different types of procedure available.

1. A private arrangement that you can download and print off. that both parents sign and date and in SOME circumstances can be used in court - if needed.

1. A court order (obviously costly) this can be used still in maintenance issues.

1. The CSA they will not start the claim process until they have contacted the absent parent and there is also a 12 week backlog atm.

I have tried to call him yet again to discuss the options and as he didn't answer (probably at work) i left him a message to tell him the 3 options and to make a decision as i will deciding what i want to do by the weekend.

And would you believe it? he has text me to say sorry he couldn't answer the phone as he was in the doctors! and he will call me when he is home.

lying prick! I suspect he will tell me now that he has found a job and starts on monday!

Phoning the CSA is quite an experience. When you do manage to get through, the background hissing noise is quite bad and I find it quite difficult to hear them. Other than that, they are polite and helpful and do seem to want to help people.

update

he has rang me now to say that a private agreement would be better for him as he is not claiming any benefits because his NI contributions are not up to date.

he also said that he has applied for a security job and that they are sending him on a course for a week. he told me who it is with, and i have looked at their website to try and find out if these courses exist (they do) some are very, very expensive. but i thought i'd check it out further and have phoned them to find out if this is true - they are phoning me back.

i will of course have to eat my hat if it turns out he is telling me the truth.

:www.csahell.com/how-do-you-avoid-paying-the-csa-540.

i've just found this link, on how to avoid paying the csa - very scary stuff!

I found them absolutely useless :(

They try, but they're crap. DS1 is almost 14. We split when he was 18 months. Between then and when he was 5 I got a fiver -once! They then closed my case.

I re-applied when he was 11 as ex had got in touch and wanted to see him. This is what happens:

They assess his earnings.
Send out a payment schedule.
He misses payments, or underpays.
They send out another payment schedule, taking into account the arrears, which puts all payments back by about 2 months.
He says there's beena change in cicumstances.
Payments re-done
He misses payments
They do a new schedule etc etc etc,

It's now meant to come direct from his earnings but if he doesn't earn enough each month, they can't take it as they have to leave 60% of his earnings. My argument is that these are ARREARS. He's had the money and spent it!

All the while he's bragging on facebook about his cash in hand work. I've evn sent them a screen shot!

So much for CSA taking them to court etc. All they do is send out schedule after schedule of payments that never happen!

Does your ex have overnight contact? If he does, he will pay nothing from his benefits. DSS's mum pays nothing towards them because she has them one night a week. And she has claimed their bloody tax credits for the 9 months they have lived with me so far , whole system has shot it IMO.

yes he does have overnight contact 2 weekends per month. i spoke to maintenance options and they said it makes no difference as its less than 52 nights per year.

i don't think the powers that be are singing from the same hymn sheet at all.