small claims for non csa payment?

[thetimeisnow]

Hi.

My dh has been paying through his wages the CSA for the last 2 years.
Yesterday he had an email from his ex wife which said
' as you are aware you have failed to make a CSA payment again.
the financial deprivation of your children will no longer be tolerated.
please be aware you will be receiving a notice from the small claims court where I have been legally advised that you will be required to pay the court fees and the outstanding CSA payments in full'

she then goes on to add that she will tell dd her Christmas visit to us will be in jeopardy as she will not be able to meet any additional expenses with regards to fuel.

This came totally out of the blue! Dh found last months wage slip- dated 25/09/2014 and phoned his ex to say as far as he's aware its been paid. she said she phoned the CSA on Friday and they say they haven't received it.

This has caused lots of upset and worry to us.

any advice please?

Get DH to phone CSA this morning find out what is going on. Find out date recieved and date and date sent out to Ex. Log the name of person you have spoke to.

If they say they haven't recieved it you need to go back to whoever is paying your wages.

I can't believe that she is threatening emotional blackmail - that is pretty low and something your DH should call her up on once he has got to the bottom of the csa issue.

i know, but its not the first time she's used the children as pawns

she is in fact evil, has told dsd she is obese (a bit chubby but she's got lots of growing to do!) and knows that all the crisps and chocolate are kept in the locked study for her brother and mums partner to eat.

Plus, surely the contact order is separate to the financial payments? The court have put that she is to do half the journey-fact. Not if she can afford it or not?!

Legally the csa has to receive September's payment by the 21st of the following month, and if there was any non payment it would be the csa taking legal action not a personal claim through small claims. My ex has a deduction from his salary and it can take anything from 10 days to a month to be credited to my bank account, dependent on how quickly his employers send it

Contact isn't related to maintenance at all so even if he wasn't paying she can't use that as an excuse to break the order

They have until the 21st to process a payment. My exDHs payment leaves his wages on the 31st, but I don't get it for three weeks!

It WILL show as a payment unmade until about three days before that.

Whoever she's spoken to at the CSA has caused you all a whole whack if trouble!

You should really get DH to remind her that the contact order and csa are separate and that withholding access, for whatever reason, will be frowned on by the courts.
As another issue I would be calling SS to discuss your concerns about emotional abuse - even if only in the context of asking them for advice. Keep the email and any other ones that have similar threats. If she does refuse access then you can apply to the court - then ensure you show them everything.

Thank you for that..
It is something dh has been thinking about, we do believe that they are emotionally abused.
It is who to seek out, as the ex and her partner are within the social services network, in fact dh has a voicemail recording of the partner threatening my dh with reporting him to ss 'as he knows people who will make sure dh never sees his children again'
Which was over my dh wanting his ex to half the drop offs, which is why she took him to court thinking the judge would agree with her that dh has to do all the journeys!

Spoke to the Csa.
they said there are no payments outstanding, they have no concerns with regards to the September payment which they have but hasn't cleared yet.
They told her that on Friday.
It's noted that she threatened legal action and the lady wasn't impressed that she contacted dh and not them.

Just what is she playing at.

Bloody hell - that recording is really sinister. DH should just go to SS anyway. Keep notes of everything and insist that you speak to someone as high up as possible. If they ask why or try to deflect then I would actually say that you have been threatened in this way. How old are your DSC? Would you be in a position to have them with you if it came to it?

It was totally uncalled for and shocking at the time, we did worry for a while whether the police would come round. Dh knows that the ex can talk things into the children's heads.
Dss is 14 and Dsd is 11.
dsd did ask last year to come and live, it's something dh is very happy to do (and I & my children). She didn't in the end as her and her mum sorted their difference's out.
dsd has wanted to visit for Christmas day the last few years but 'mummy said she'd miss me too much'
so this year she is coming and dh has told the ex he's reassured dd that her mum will not be moody about the arrangement!

Thanks for the tip about going as high as we can.

Do you have a contact order? We had to get the family courts involved to stop DH's exW from constantly holding us to ransom over contact. We have every other Christmas/Easter with DSC, every other weekend and 50% of holidays. It hasn't stopped all the shit but at least we know we will see the DSC.
Have a look at Parental Alienation - it sounds very like what your DSC's mother is doing - all that guilt laid on to children about visiting the other parent is unbelievably damaging.

Yes we have a contact order similar to yours but the ex insisted Christmas and children's birthdays were with her as 'that's the children's wishes'

Have had another email tonight.
She must have phoned when the financial department were closed and has only got the same 'not paid' message from them.
She has outlined the times she didn't receive payments over the last 4 years- all legit reasons, change of jobs and the CSA being so slow in setting the orders up. These 'missed' payments have been cleared-a year ago- as arrears.
I see no reason to bring this up as it's all paid?

she ends the email with ' action has been taken'

we are so stressed with this now. can dh go to the police for harassment or something?

During the last 4 years, we have both been phoning the CSA to get things sorted, dh wants to pay for his children, have always been honest and told them of change in circumstances etc, the arrears financially crippled us for 6 months. The CSA don't care, I cried on the phone to them one day and they said 'stop paying your rent then'. so for her to bring up that time hurts.

As an aside, when I got random payments off my ex for 3years through being on/off benefits, not once did I think to contact him, just kept in contact with CSA as to where I stood.

I do think that you need to fire a warning shot - but really don't know if the police would do anything. Could you afford to have a solicitor send her a letter telling her to fuck off stop harassing you? I'm surprised that a court allowed her to take Christmas.
It might be an idea to look into going back to court for "specific issue". DH represented himself and managed to her most of his concerns aired/sorted. It doesn't stop them all together but it will haul her up and make her realise that you will not be threatened. Call SS though.

I did say to dh last night about seeing a solicitor, even if it was just to get our side on record.
And we have talked about going back to court too, make all contact on paper and no variables about what times and dates because their 'going on holiday' (1 night camping ffs!)
The only thing about that is now the children are older sometimes they do/don't want to come depending on what they have on with friends (fair enough) so there would still be some contact with ex.

The Small Claims Court doesn't have jurisdiction over family law matters such as child maintenance enforcement, so the ex is making an empty threat there.