csa paymaent conflict

[sphinxy]

Hi Can anyone advise me , my daughters ex husband , as his csa payment automatically taken by his firm from his wages each month, but on several occassions the money as not gone in to her account ,when she as rang the csa they have informed her that the payments have not reached them from his employers. Is there any way she can threaten them with legal action to make sure that these payments are made on time.As she as incurred bank charges for going overdrawn because she needs this money to live on as she is a single mother with an 8 and a 5 yr old any suggestions would be helpful thanks in anticipation

[tigersam258]

is the payment direct from the ex husbands account into hers by way of a standing order or is it taken from him by direct debit and then transfered from the CSA account? either way contact the CSA to advise that payments have been missing and they will advise the correct legal action.

[sphinxy]

she as contacted the c s a it was them that told her that they had not received tthe last two months payments she was then told by one of their staff quote " she should not rely on this money" she informed her ex husband who confirmed that the money had been stopped by his firm

[anniebird]

An employer does get involved quite often. If the payments are made via deductions from pay this is not something that the father can stop, the employer has to make the deductions by law. The money is deducted from the pay of the father and paid to CSA once a month. It has to arrive with them by 19th of the following month. There could by a problem with the employer not quoting the correct reference number on the remittance which would mean the money was lying in a suspense account. If the CSA does not receive the money they are supposed to check up. Have they not done that? The CSA are not very efficient but I thought that at least they got this bit right. The ex husband could help by asking his employer to check their records and contact CSA to clarify the situation.

[Beanmistriss]

I think money is only taken directly from his wages by the employer when the person has been non compliant, this is the case in my experience anyway. We also had the same problem and after getting no answers from the employer on the phone the csa sent someone round to investigate. My blokes ex had the wages person helping her to scam the csa by passing fraudulent info to them about how much she was earning. Hopefully you daughters ex is not this cunning.

Unlike someone who pays willingly, who pays a set amount every month regardless of it being a good or bad month for them, people who have their money taken by their employers have to have to earn over a certain amount before they can take the payment. So say the amount they must earn is 400 (for example, sorry I have lost the pound sign from my keyboard) and the amount he is supposed to pay your daughter 100. If he only earns 450 that month she will only get 50. Is it possible he is earning less that he was?

The only real way to get the csa to do anything is to get annoying. Phone all the time and annoy the sh*t out of them and if that doesn't work make a formal complaint. This has worked for us (almost, getting there). You will also get an individual case worker this way so you deal with the same person all the time. For their staff to say she should not rely on the money is terrible, thats their job. There are alot of crap people who work there but make a noise untill you get someone good. Sorry if you know all this stuff already but honestly, make a complaint and keep rininging them. If you get someone crap complain again. Eventually they will give you someone who will be willing to make an effort to help you. Good luck! x