CSA Arrears - a success story!

[samantha001]

I wanted to share a success story with Mumsnet as I was determined to fight my corner with the CSA on behalf of all single mums who's ex-partners earn a lot of money & try to get away with paying as little as possible.

My ex earns at least a 6 figure salary (he earned 140k when we were together) & has managed to hide some of this from the CSA to pay me as little as possible, however having reassesed his income which took 1 year due to lack of co-operation, the CSA eventually went directly to his employers, they increased the weekly amount which meant there were arrears to be collected.

Four months after the assesment ex had still not paid up or contaced CSA so they set up an attachment of earnings, I was told the arrears would be paid in 2 payments over 2 months through the AOE. Unsurprisingly upon receipt of this notification he immediately contacted the CSA & verbally informed them that he could not afford to pay, the CSA arranged with him to pay me over the next 12 months. Obviously I dont know the reason but on the basis that he has not lost his job & has just bought a new 600k house (& has two brand new BMW's on the drive), I felt whatever his reason it was not a valid reason for the CSA to soften their position at my childs expense.

CSA claimed that allowing him to pay over 12 months would guarantee that I would receive the arrears payment & maintenance, I argued that an AOE would have guaranteed that I would receive the arrears & the maintenance. They then said they were worried he would leave his job, I reminded them that ex was a company director & they could see how much he was earning & unlikely to suddenly leave his job. After several discussions where CSA relied heavily on arguing that allowing my ex to volunteer the payment was going to be the only way of collecting maintenance & arrears, I escalated to the Complaints team where they continued to argue the same point, however, eventually they took MY point and agreed that they had been too leanient on my ex. My arrears has now been paid in full in two lump sums.

I know my case was not as desperate as many and my ex is probably not paying me what he should but it goes to show that if you have a valid point the CSA do listen & act sometimes.

Good for you. I hope your next post(s) show that CSA did collect the monies due and that all has gone well.

Congratulations samantha001 & well done for sticking to your guns!
I'm trying to decide when/if I ask for a review of my DSs father. He's self-employed & claiming he only earns minimum wage so I get £16 a week for two children whilst he boasts about going to buy a £400K house, takes them on helicopter rides, etc etc!!
I just don't know if I'd get anywhere. Its only himself & his business partner who are in the company & I imagine he has very astutely hidden lots of things.

rubin can you not ask them to look at his lifestyle and that it does not match up with what he is claiming to earn?

Rubin, if your ex & business partner are set up as a ltd company I know CSA will consider directors dividends when they make their assesement, I think there are some other stipulations around this, I was told the initial assesment would not take them into consideration but the next one would, not sure why. My sister has a ltd company with her business partner & they get paid the majority of their income via directors dividends, it is above board & they were advised by their accountants to do this. I agree with blackeyedsusan and would definately ask CSA to reasses him especially when he is boasting about his wealth. Good luck

Thanks smantha001 & everyone.
When I first contacted CSA last year I checked his accounts online & it showed a dividend of £40 (between himself plus one other Director).
However, his accountant wrote the CSA a letter saying the Dividends were going back into the company or some such nonsense & CSA said they had to accept that.
I've since checked this years accounts & for some reason the Profit & Loss figures which include the dividends are not being shown! His report shows all other sorts of figures & percentages but not those. Does anyone know if he can be exempt from showing them??

Contact Companies House they might know www.companieshouse.gov.uk

My sister's friend is an accountant so going to check with her first.

If there are no dividends this year then it doesn't show anything. It used to put a Nil figure in but it doesn't show it that way any more.

Thanks Gillybean but it doesn't show any of the Loss & Profit figures. Is that right? I've noticed also that he is now filed as 'Total Exemption Small' whereas last year he was filed as 'Total Exemption Full' - do you know if that indicates anything?

www.trueknowledge.com/q/what_does_total_exemption_small_mean

If it said full last year that meant they had to submit full accounts, but if it has changed they don't hav to submit full accounts now so that would be why you can't see the info you could before.

Rubin you don't need a letter from his accountants explaining the dividend. The CSA should be asking for a copy of his Tax Return. Any income he receives, dividends etc, will be shown on that. All company directors have to submit a Tax Return to HMRC so this info should be available.

Thanks Gillybean.
I'm going to phone CSA today to ask them to re-look at his £40 K dividends from last year. I really feel the person I spoke to in CSA was wrong & this should have been taken further.
Will let you know how it goes!

rubin, did you have any luck with the CSA? Am in a very similar situation so trawling the threads for advice.

Hello MumPotNoodle,

Sorry I haven't replied sooner.

Sorry but I haven't yet put in my application for review. I spoke to CSA & it became pretty clear that I have a very good case.

However, & this may seem really weak, but my problem is that my Ex is such a bully, I don't trust him to do something really nasty to get back at me if I put this through. I'm trying to weigh up the benefits of putting the review through with the grief that I may get back from him. He's always threatening me with one thing and another, that sometimes I just want to leave things as they are, financially, for a quiet life. I know that probably sounds terrible ...

I sent him an email a couple of weeks ago asking if he would contribute to some Winter clothes for our DSs. I've just spent a lot of money buying Winter clothes for them & asked if he could at least pay for some warm trousers,etc. I thought that at least this was a way of asking him to pay more towards their upkeep. Unfortunately I've heard nothing back, so tempted to push for the CSA pay review. He's also in arrears by 2 mths for the little amount he does owe!

I was hoping to avoid pushing through the CSA review, as I know it will probably lead to a tax inspection on his company (He's putting his travel expenses to visit our DC through as company expenditure when clearly it isn't) & that will really rile him. However I'm not working at the moment & feel at some point soon I'm just going to have to push for more money via the CSA.

How are you getting on?

Thanks for the reply....do you like my new name .

Your ex sounds like a complete tool tbh...but then most of them are and that's why they are the ex, no?

My ex has his own business but is apparently "earning less than £5 a month" .....wish I could afford a two week summer holiday on less than £5 income . I have no idea how I can prove his income is otherwise.

Wonder how these so called men can sleep at night.

Yes its amazing how they do it! My Ex is now 2 mths in arrears on his measly £8 a wk for each of his children, but as little as it is I need it! He is being a complete arse about it - ranting & raving that the CSA can send all the warning letters they want, blah blah. He's abroad at the minute & refusing to do anything about it until he gets back next week & even then saying he might close the company & move abroad permanently - not sure how he plans on seeing his children then!
Anyway I'm phoning the CSA this morning for an update from them - will let you know how it goes.

Hi have you heard CSA is changing to CMEC and it sounds to me you will finally get what you should starting 2012 the CMEC will go to DWP and say if you have 2 kids you will get 16% of the gross pay!!! but if he earns more than £800 per week you will get an extra 12% yes so for 2 kids you will get 28% of ex's gross pay this will include the dividends!! go to nacsa.uk site!

So an absent parent on a six figure sum should contribute £200 a month to his child's upbringing. It's not just food and clothes but the cost of housing and raising a child. Plus if one parent is a high earner the child should benefit from that too.

That's a lot of assumptions, highman. No one mentioned who ended the relationship or whether they were working or not. Child maintenance is contribution to all the costs of raising children - housing, heating, food, transport, clothes, haircuts, nappies, toiletries, activities, child care, replacing bedding and furniture, decorating their rooms, books, stationery, toys, iPads, computers, sports equipment etc etc. That all amounts to considerably more than £100/week and children of separated families often suffer from emotional and behavioural problems later in life and do less well educationally because their family doesn't have enough money to go round. So child maintenance is one of the most important contributions to a child's long term wellbeing a parent can make.

It doesn't matter who ended the relationship, both parents are responsible for their children and it is the children who suffer unnecessarily when child maintenance is withheld. Even if they are working most recipients of child maintenance spend a higher percentage of their income than the CSA/CMS rates the payer is expected to contribute. Avoiding child maintenance is just cheating children and lowering their standard of living. As one recipient ( a father as it happens) said paying the equivalent of one day's pay a week for two children is peanuts.

Congratulations Samantha001. And sorry to hear that it was such a ball ache getting there.

I'm also posting for an almost identical reason.

I have just recently had word from the CMS that my ex and father of my children has an attachment to earnings and should (unless he quits his high paying job) be paying both maintenance as of March plus arrears for non-payment for the last 12 months in addition.

Sceptical until I see it, but feels like a win at the same time.