AIBU to be astounded that CSA have chosen to write off my kid's maintenance debt?

[wantmorenow]

Just that. Letter out of the blue that they have decided that the debt is permanently unrecoverable so THEY have chosen to write it off!

It's not their fucking money! It's mine and my kids!

Have been on hold for 20 minutes and no luck of getting through on to the CSA 'helpline'.

Can they really do this?

Yep same, they're writing off over 6k of mine. I'm furious. I don't understand why they don't use the power they supposedly have to sort it out. Once they took him to court and got a liability order. The following 12 months was the only time I got a penny. I've told them to do it again or take his driving licence but they don't want to know

Its odd, as it seems totally random.

Posted about it a couple of days back

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3571646-Anyone-else-had-a-random-letter-from-CMS

They already do fuck all to chase up actual debts, nevermind just randomly writing them off entirely..

Do be careful as every time we contact the CIA were told my husband has a debt for my stepdaughter but we already ordered several years of bank statements and proved that In fact there is no debt! If you thought you were getting the money then maybe it's just their history of shit record keeping! You can order all of your records. We did that to check we weren't missing anything as when it went over to cams they started going on about debt again.

For the record every time he was told he had a debt it was a different amount ranging from £600 up to £7000. He paid the ordered amount every month and had records of very payment. They still got it wrong.

I got one of these too
I'm paying him through uni
Is it worth appealing

'My kids are now adults.I honestly thought it had all been paid, I didn't know there was still a debt.'

There probably isn't a debt then. My db received the same letter and he does not owe a penny. I wonder if it's the csa's cack handed way of closing a file, like a automated letter to get people with adult DC off their files.

Get your MP involved. They got their arse into gear within days of that happening, and at that point phoned me constantly with updates until they started collecting money. At one point the mentioned a possible charge order on his property.

I am receiving arrears through a DOE order, and he will be paying well into my DDs 20s.

I don't see how they can't trace the non paying parent since they will have their NI number and they will be easily traced through HMRC. Unless they are being supported by a partner and have nil income or are self employed and can play the system they should be able to collect. Even people on benefits need to pay a token amount.

It's just not the CSA's job to collect it anymore now the children are adults

Why? The CSA has jurisdiction in this country on maintenance matters. That means for the vast majority of resident parents, their only support is the CSA/CMS. The OP could not chase her ex through the courts for this debt because that’s not how it works. The debt has been accrued under the CSA/CMS. It is therefore their responsibility to manage i for however long that takes.

Maybe if they changed the rule so that the debt for children who have to be supported via universal credit or other benefits had to be paid back into the tax pot, then all of a sudden the CMS might get some power to be able to recover money owed.

It should be a lifelong debt, recovered from a persons estate after death if needs be, but there wouldn't be any need for that if they had the power to revoke driving licences and passports and enforce bankruptcy if parents don't pay.

I bet if the government paid out the maintenance each week/month and then pulled it back from the NRP the rates of collections would go up massively!

I also bet if they did that and took it off benefits (so if you claimed IS, for example, you only got that, but they clawed some of it back) they'd also find a way to sort the self employed bollocks as well.

However, there is just no feeling in any government of any colour that this is an issue.

It should be a lifelong debt, recovered from a persons estate after death if needs be, but there wouldn't be any need for that if they had the power to revoke driving licences and passports and enforce bankruptcy if parents don't pay.

They already have those powers.

And it was a lifelong debt and recoverable from estates. It couldn't be included in bankruptcy either - even when all other debt was written off it stayed in place as a debt. It's the government that changed this.

Also it used to be that people on benefits only got to keep the first £20 of maintenance and the rest went to the secretary of state to offset the benefits cost.

They scrapped that because there is just no political will to enforce maintenance.

They already have those powers

Really? They should bloody well use them then! But no doubt they are as underfunded as every other public service.

Whole system is shit.

Some of the sanctions CMS/CSA can use...

We’ll take the action ourselves – we don’t have to apply to a court frst. We can do one or all of the following:
• take money direct from their earnings
• take money direct from their bank, building society or Post Offce account

They can also go to court for a liability order -

We will then use the liability order to take action such as:
• asking bailiffs or sheriff offcers to go to the paying parent’s home and seize belongings, and then sell them to cover the child maintenance owed
• putting a ‘charge’ against a property or some other asset so that it can’t be sold or remortgaged without the child maintenance being paid off frst. This makes things diffcult for the paying parent and can encourage them to pay
• forcing the sale of a property or other asset and collecting the money from it to pay the child maintenance owed
• taking away the paying parent’s driving licence
• sending the paying parent to prison

I don't think it's a funding issue tbh. The CSA being hopeless was an issue when I was a child and I'm nearly 40. It's not a recent thing.

If the majority of people owed this money were men, or rich, then the government will to be more effective would be vastly different imo.

I recently got one of these letters stating they were cancelling the debt owed by my DC's waster dad.

Came as a complete surprise since I phoned them years ago and told them I didn't want to pursue maintenance after receiving a letter saying he was making it difficult for them to collect the £2.50 per child a week (which they state was all he had to fork out) was an insult. My kids dinner money was £2.50 a day. Each!

We were surprised to hear they kept the case open

It's not about the money, although bloody right that's important!
It's the implication that all those children can just be disregarded if someone chooses.

We need to move to an Australian system. They can collect the money.

It’s a national disgrace, council tax are efficient ( surprise surprise)

It really is a disgrace. And yet there is STILL a feeling among men, and some women, that nrp's (who are usually men) should not really have to pay for stuff for their kids.
It's always "she won't let me see them" or "she gets £££ from tax credits" or "my husband pays plenty in maintenance to his ex but we have our own kids now."
Oh, and the ex "never works" too..

I would love to see the following changes:

-Maintenence recovered via HMRC
-Owed CM being a lifetime debt and impacting on credit report like any other debts.
-Fathers still obliged to pay for existing children no matter how many more children they go on to have

Single mothers are still villified and treated as feckless scroungers, but men can father numerous children here there and everywhere and the taxpayer is expect to pick up the tab?
Why??
I was talking to my teen son the other day about choosing to have sex. He said it's really important for girls to not get pressured into sex, as they are the ones who get pregnant. I said, ok, sure, but in the end a baby is as much the boys responsibility as the girls. He said "yeah, but the boy usually runs off"
This is what our sons are learning- the fact that men can just abdicate responsibility and the government fucking enables them!

I bet if the government paid out the maintenance each week/month and then pulled it back from the NRP the rates of collections would go up massively!

Absolutely.

My ex owed £65,000 was being taken to civil court by CSA to force sale of assets but 5 days before he was declared bankrupt (he wasn't ) they restarted claim from 0 and still has never paid a penny, must have bypassed £100,000 by now. I never have and never will get a penny.

Maintenence recovered via HMRC

That assumes tax is paid. My ex has successfully avoided paying tax for the last 10 years. His game is obvious to me and I have reported him again and again. Nothing changes.

Small claims OP.

YANBU

This seems so unfair. Just because they are adults doesn’t mean they don’t need it.

The UK really is a joke when it comes to child maintenance. The system here is utterly appalling.