Cased Closed

A question about : Cased Closed

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help. My DH has 2 sons from previous relationships & has been paying via DOE since 1998 (previously directly to both mothers but relationships broke down) Eldest son's case was closed in 2009 as he was working full time no arrears outstanding. Second son's case was closed in 2012 but CSA claimed there was arrears so carried on paying via DOE until April 2014. We heard nothing until October 14 when we received a letter out of the blue stating that we owe Ј2100.00 for arrears payments for eldest child? 5 years later? (He's 24 now) We immediately rang the CSA who quite bullishly said we have to pay & the DOE would be reinstated (no letter advising us). We have pursued, requesting a breakdown of the finances (They have no record of our 2 daughters despite letters to them in both 2002 & 2005 respectively when they were born & subsequently requested the monthly amount reduced, which we after they refused had to involve ICE & local MP) We have been offered a case worker who in her own words said its a bit of a mess & would get back to us in 28 days. That was on the 13th of October, not a sausage since but my DH has been informed by payroll this week that the DOE order is effective as of December salary for Ј333.00 a month until paid. Can they do that? Do we not need to give permission for the money to be taken again? We've just moved house & thought we were done with the CSA & could get our with our lives I'm at a loss of what to do...

Best answers:

• Have you received all of the case files?
• No Nothing, we requested them when our 2nd case closed in 2012 for our own sanity, which apparently sparked the arrears calculation & subsequent payments until 2014 but haven't actually seen anything. When we requested the financials again from our case worker that's when we were told "its a bit of a mess". I've joined the NACSA website to gather more information & sending off the Data Protection letter tomorrow, is this the same as requesting the case files or do i need to send a separate request for that?
• You should have received your full file within a certain amount of time, and back then you would have had to enclose a cheque/postal order for Ј10.
  Its free now and the NACSA website has a template letter you can send.
  There isnt anything you can do about the DOE right now until you have your file and can fathom out if the arrears are correct or not.
  Do you have a letter confirming no arrears from when the case was closed? if so, I would look at involving your MP for quick answers.
• Its worth asking your MP to help. We found that our MP was a great help when we were suddenly faced with a demand for a large amount of arrears (which we were eventually able proved were not owed). No one was taking any notice of my husband until the MP got involved, and the copies of his file didnt tell us much. With the MPs help we finally got an explanation of where they thought the arrears had come from and why they had not previously showed up on his account. Once we had that information we were able to provide evidence to prove that their information was wrong.