Bloody bloody bloody CSA!!

[Janos]

I really need to vent.

I have just been told by my caseworker that, despite the fact my XP now owes around £700 in arrears (and counting), he has left work and they can't do anything about it until he signs on for benefits or gets a new job. So tough shit.

So I ask them why they don't try to trace him. Their response was more or less 'We'll do it when we want to/feel like it'. I kid you not.

So basically XP gets away with it yet again, and they are letting him. They won't trace him, they won't arrest his bank account and they won't put an inhibition order on the property he's selling because again he doesn't owe enough and they have to get a court order.

I'm actually sending in a complaint as it seems no-one actually wants to listen to what I have to say. At least they can bloody well read it!

It's so frustrating. Why does everything have to be a fight?

Hi i feel for you CSA have put my details on the wrong system and its a nightmare , go see a citezen advice centre or a lawer and find out were you stand , csa are mad , hope you get sorted out

feeling your pain, in the same boat Janos, it's been going on for 2 years for me and I'm owed 3 times that amount. However, I did make a complaint and they gave me 50 quid payment for making such a mess of my claim.

XP still out of work though, gave up his job so he didn't have to pay.....

they just don't seem to want to use the powers they have ben given do they.

No, they don't!

I'm just going to keep bugging them until I get something. Complaint letter off today.

XP is having a baby with his new wife. Part of me wants to ask how she feels about having a child with a man who doesn't feel the need to support the one he already has.

I feel like they are sat there laughing at me sometimes.

Try contacting yourt MP about it.

Good idea slug, thank you.

once you complain it goes to a different department - so worth doing, and they seem to do more than the rest of the people there. Good luck Janos, and I'd feel sorry for his new wife if I was you - she may be in the same boat one day (must have crossed her mind too).

Thank you Grumpy

Do it, call your MP. I'm being pissed around by the CSA too, and so I rang my local MP. They have a hotline into the CSA complaints dept, and what with there being an election coming up, they want all the brownie points they can get.

My caseworker had decided that 'nothing more could be done' about my payments too. MP's call went in, and as if by magic, my file has been re-opened and they are looking again.

I escalated it to the MP because I'd heard that once an official complaint is made you get treated completely differently, and it certainly seems to be true.

Good luck.

Good plan lindsaygii - my MP is Alastair Darling

By the way, I found this woman and her organisation who are apparently that absolute dog's bollocks when it comes to sorting out the CSA.

Win with the CSA expert

I'm getting a Face to Face Officer come to my house to sort my shit out - apparently. And I'm getting this Scoop Aid lot on it, too.

Worth a try!!

The least amount that can be paid is £5 per week now.

Interesting how no-one comes to our houses and says 'oh, you've spent a fiver on the kids already this week, you can stop now'.

£1.50 a week? What the hell is that supposed to do for his children?

Sorry herbietea. They seem to be utterly frustrating to deal with all round. I don't know a single person whose dealings with them have not been difficult.

Anyway - will see what response I get from my complaint and progress if it needs be.

Oh and lindsaygii thank you for the link. I'll check it out.

Well, I say that my XP has had no problem whatsoever and seems to be running rings round them. So his dealings with them have been easy.

Reality that sounds quite positive and leads me to hope that I may at least get something, even if it's just a one off.

What grates is that I TOLD them he had left work BEFORE they placed the earnings arrestment. TWICE. And they ASSUREd me that they checked and he was employed there.

Well, after his promise to call me with an appointment to see a Face to Face Officer to sort out my complaint, which he made early on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Creeber (sp?), Senior Resolution Officer in the Plymouth office, has not bothered to call me back.

What these people don't seem to realise is, they get to knock off work and go home to their life after shitting on us from a great height all day.

But they are our life.

If they do come to my house they better bring a large box of Very Very Sorry with them or there'll be hell.

reality - i was told the same when i closed my case in dec 07 after 7 1/2 years of nothing from them. i said i couldnt be bothered with the letters telling me how much should get and how much he owes me every few months!
then in june this yr i reopened it and after a few WEEKS (very impressed) of chasing them i started getting the money and he does owe me the arrears still so it might be worth querying it with them x