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Hi,
I recently got a 3% pay increast (in Jan).
I told the CSA about this straight away and was told it doesn't breach their threshold so there might not be anything extra on there.
Now I just received a phone call telling me that because I earned overtime in January and February (we were short of staff) that my payments for the WHOLE year go up by about £38 per month AND i'm "in arrears" of £111.
They have said that i can send them March, April and May's payslips to prove that i don't ALWAYS do OT and they'll re-adjust in the meantime making me pay £111 AND £38 extra a month on top of that.
My basic wage has literally gone up by £40 a month but because i did 8 poxy hours of overtime to recover from Christmas and to afford to live i'm being penalised.
Can they do this?! The woman on the phone seemed to think that this was entirely fair.
Any advice would be awesome.
Thanks,
Rik.
I suppose they are working solely on the evidence they have on paper, which is reasonable, but it does seem to be extreme in how they are doing this. Assuming they aren't taking the money directly from your salary, my advice would be to calculate exactly what you should be paying them, and pay that amount, including any arrears - though if money is tight, I think they can only take arrears at 5% of your takehome pay (but check on that figure), so you could spread the arrears as well. Write to them telling them exactly what you are paying, showing your calculations and enclosing proof.
Apart from the fact that the CSA are generally slow to act, if they dispute your figures, then to go after you for arrears, they will have to take you to court, at which point you can state your case and they would probably be admonished for bringing the case in the first place.
Additionally, I have been told by the CSA that they don't persue arrears of less than £300 through the courts because it's simply not worth it in time and costs - but don't know if that still holds true.
It's a shame that the CSA do seem to go after the easy targets - ie those who play by the book as I'm sure many people don't declare pay rises voluntarily.
Forgot a couple of points.
First, when the CSA write to you with the new payment schedule, they should enclose leaflets and details on how to appeal.
Secondly, if you have overpaid, then you can claim that back.
Thanks dude, i will need to send them payslips for 2 months to sort it. They said my overtime is still income so even if only 2 months a year it still gets counted. They have over guessed my salary by a lot coz of that.
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