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I'm wondering if anyone can give me any advice. The ex wife got greedy and got the CSA involved recently as she felt the volunatry arrangement was not providing her with a substantial amount to support my 8 year old son.
In July this year I was told that the case had been passed to enforcement as they said I owed £2495.98 in arrears, for the period Sept 2007-July 2012. However my gf deals with this for me now and she has provided them with proof (bank statements and cq details) that we have paid her £3318.86 for the period between Feb 09 and July 2012 alone.
Prior to that payments were made in cash so obviously we dont have any receipts. It was only my gf insisting on an audit trail that lead us to pay by transfer or cheque (Im glad I listened to her now!!).
My gf has been dealing with this and has been phoning the CSA on a weekly basis since July to try to move things along as we believe that I have actually overpaid my ex as apposed to underpaid, my ex wife has never informed the CSA of the voluntary payments she has received.
We have provided them with everything they have asked for and were recently told that as I am now SEM I should wait until I have a full years tax returns before going any further.
Despite the fact that my gf has called weekly, written and sent everything they asked for we came home yesterday to an Enforcement Order for £2345.98, less than the amount they quoted originally and saying they were proceeding because i hadnt been in touch.
My gf has copied all the documentation we have and typed up a detailed log of all the calls she has made (she works for the local authority and its a habit thing to log everything!) and we are sending this to Plymouth this time as thats where the Enforcement notice originated from.
She did call the number quoted on the notice immediately, only to be told that theyd never come accross a case of the enforcement notice being sent from a different office before. They couldnt transfer her and had to fill out an internal form rquesting a call back within 24 hours (which doesnt include Sat), we will now wait and see.
I am now thinking of telling them I would just rather take the court date and see what a judge says. My gfs calls to the CSA are well documented and if needs be we can legally request copies of the taped calls I believe.
I am inclined to agree that you take the court date. I would suggest that you also put everything in writing with all evidence and send it to the CSA - send it recorded delivery so that there is proof of delivery and give them the opportunity to agree that the payments have been made, that you are not in arrears and to withdraw the court action - it's just an extra bit of evidence you can present to the court if they don't withdraw.
The only thing that puzzles me is that the CSA were happy for your girlfriend to act on your behalf, I would have thought they would want to speak to you directly.
I am in a similar position where i have over paid previously the CSA have categirically stayed that my voluntary agreement cannot be taken into account as they cannot get involved with what has happend before the PWC contacted the CSA and they made contact with you.
With that in mind surely they cannot persue for a period where you had a voluntary agreement.
Thanks for your reply. The reason my gf deals with it now is because I cannot cope with it anymore. I get frustrated and end up losing my temper. Shes much more laid back than I am but even she is getting frustrated.
Having said that Enforcement have rung her today and will now look at the case in more detail and call her again tomorrow ..................so we will see!!
The long and the short of it is the CSA say I owe the ex £2495.98 and we have proof that we have paid her £3318.86, plus she has had additional cash payments above this, which we cannot prove so we will have to accept that they cant take those into account.
I can understand that - though wait until you have to deal with the Student Loan Company if university ever looms - then you'll really know what frustration is.
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