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Old 3rd December 2008, 17:50   #1 (permalink)
stardust_john
Gold Account Customer
 


I am in: Buckingham palace I wish
Posts: 416
stardust_john Novitiate
Angry 'new' csa and the will to live

Right ready for this

As said before I knew things were changing and due illness problems I try and keep on top of them.

End November I received a letter stating from certain date payments would be made directly to me for absent parent csa contributions and then I would need to inform Income support appropriately, I rang income support and csa for eplanation and left if fairly happy.

As ususal go through the pile with the post it notes and one reminds me to inform income support if csa money arrives, fair enough, but none appeared, so decide to ring them and ask when will it start and how much roughly. I asked was it put off till new year and was told not. You see anyone receiving income supoort and csa will know untill now regular letters arrived saying you could keep this soon when it changes and you could keep that. I would ring and be told not, yet it was changing soon, and they would let me know. I got these letters for over two years

The woman I spoke to said they had been paying me and my first reaction was thank god I was checking up on this. They said it started in November as their letter refered and was paid into my bank account. I said it hadnt appeared and was their a problem to be told the account and pardon if I state I started to panic. Not with the woman but as to the status of the said account, pretty dire

Any how I asked them when they got these details as my account was changed in second week of october (more accurate) and all benefits were accuratley and promptly going into that 'a ok'. First thing she came back to was its not our fault. What is I asked your money has gone elsewhere and if its been 'gobbled up'
my language, by you old account then 'thats not our problem'
her words.

I politely asked them why they had the old details and was told it was my fault and not their responsibility to update details. I said to be fair my details were updated via job centre plus and your brief letter dated end october refers to you'll get the details from them. How am I to know you ask for details in september from job centre and refer to them as the current details. I asked how am I to know they have not told you. She said it was your fault and the loss of the money was not her problem and basically go away. I asked if she could speak to her supervisor and ask was it possible to request the money back from the bank as a mistake and pay it into the correct one, she said Ive heared of that sort of thing I dont know, hang on. She then proceded to speak to someone else if full haring of me and stated, Ive got this person on the phone, she gave us the wrong details, weve paid it and shes blaming us, its not our fault is it. I heared another voice say no.

She came back to me and then said go to citazens advice. I said what do I do about income support and will they penalise me and she said she didnt know.

Now even freaky me can see mistakes happen and I was just asking for help. I asked why they couldnt have sent me a brief note prior to payment stating account and ammount and date and any problems ring us now. This was after all the first time I was ever receiving money from the csa and its new to me. I understand changes in details need to be given by me but I was understood as date of letter was end october that they would have the correct details used in october, how was I to know they got them in septermber. D'you see my point. No ones died but because of an error my bank has ate the money. She didnt give a poop, pardenthe language, I was by now crying.

Any how pulled myself together and decided spur of moment to go to bank and plead for help, I dont normally go out on my own due to illness and apart from taking my son out of school on pretence of family ememrgency I didnt know what to do, I didnt do that, so called a taxi to wait for me.

Got to bank managed to get some of it and aware also account charges building up and loan unpaid and therefore charges now getting out of hand as they havnt replied to letter. As account seems to still have touchable overdraft I have at least realised they cant have got the letter so know to deal with that tommorow. They arent going to be happy with me.

I ring the csa back when home and say I got some of it and please double check my details are now correct. Done. When asking to complian they kept saying they were not part of the govt anymore and a seperate agency. I asked did that mean they were a company and they said sort of. So I asked does that make me a customer? The reply was yes. So I said as a new customer is it normal to be treat this way and if so, what does that say about the 'new' csa.

I never had any problems with them before and got the impression I wasnt the first querying payments and feel tainted as a pain in the bum.
This wasnt a small ammount of money involved, mega in my world and I didnt freak out, I was calm, polite and just asked for advice. Why was I treat like something of the bottom of a shoe.

So 'new' csa is your new slogan 'its not our fault' I as your customer dont need to stress who is at fault, it doesnt matter, I dont want your head to roll, I just asked for help.

This sound familiar to anyone else?

Last edited by stardust_john; 3rd December 2008 at 18:40. Reason: altered month of change as appeared confusing
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Old 3rd December 2008, 18:03   #2 (permalink)
stardust_john
Gold Account Customer
 


I am in: Buckingham palace I wish
Posts: 416
stardust_john Novitiate
Default Re: 'new' csa and the will to live

Further to above rang income support and they were lovely. Told them what happend and said did it mean my income support would stop and was reassured not. I said I would ring them again when money arrived in the other account and this lovely lovely woman calmed me down and said I had obviously been caught in a little abys of one month.

Now what gets me is when the csa were realing off weve sent this weve sent that and you should have it and I was pleading Ive had nothing about payments. She said the letter was dated end of october and started to quote it to which I said thats the one I am quoting to you. It says nothing about account numbers other than we will get if from job centre plus.

Now surely all they needed to do was send reminder nearer time of payment to double check details. They are as they quote a company now but seem to happy to blame other people.

I dont know what will happen to my income support, but at least I know they will right to me and let me know accurately like they have always doen. Is the 'new' csa ploy to get us so peed off to go direct to our partners, it was offered as an option, which I said no to due to domestic violence.

I'm off to the doccys tommorow as been so stressed I cant stop being sick and see mental health dept next week, so feel Ive held it together pretty well. On my file it states with income support vulnerable and they have been fine with me.

I am now fearful of any future communication with the csa.

When she was being rude to me I turned on the tape machine and stated I am now recording this for reference due to my memory, she spit feathers and said it was ilegal and I said surely not and its not going to court is it so why worry. She said well you obviously know your rights. Why say its ilegal, guilty conscience csa......
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Old 3rd December 2008, 18:06   #3 (permalink)
stardust_john
Gold Account Customer
 


I am in: Buckingham palace I wish
Posts: 416
stardust_john Novitiate
Default Re: 'new' csa and the will to live

One thing that came from this was to understand what a friend told me recently aobut not being able to communicate to a person who wants to help with advice rather than say not our fault, she was at other end and the absent parent. I untill today had no idea what she was refering to and thought surely they cant be that bad.....
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Old 5th December 2008, 13:30   #4 (permalink)
stardust_john
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I am in: Buckingham palace I wish
Posts: 416
stardust_john Novitiate
Default Re: 'new' csa and the will to live

I today received my first communication from csa telling me ammount and dates of payments.

They last told me a payment was received by me on the second week nov and that it would follow four weekly or roughly then

The letter Ive got today after ringing the income support the last time with above dates have been told the payments will now start on the last day of dec and then four weekly from that.

Now surely they have lost two weeks and how does this relate to my income support?

Last edited by stardust_john; 5th December 2008 at 13:39.
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Old 5th December 2008, 13:46   #5 (permalink)
stardust_john
Gold Account Customer
 


I am in: Buckingham palace I wish
Posts: 416
stardust_john Novitiate
Default Re: 'new' csa and the will to live

Right had cup of tea to destress then rang them.

Spoke to a very nice person who explained it a little better and it looks indeed as if another payment will come sometime in december and then again in Jan. So thanked him and trying to calm down and just watch the bank account.

I think I just panicked on a bad day at the thought of there was money comming in and I wasnt aware so couldnt tell social services. I was worried they would think something untoward was going on. This is from a person who turned down the chance of a social loan and decided to apply for one next year as I was frightened they would think I was buying prezzies with it rather than carpet. I know its me being stressy but with things the way they used to be paid I didnt have to deal with the stress and this last letter mentions if we feel ex should then pay less you will be responsible for repaying ex.

The shear idea of communicating with ex made me freak out
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Old 6th December 2008, 21:13   #6 (permalink)
emmaf01
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I am in: Liverpool
Posts: 2,074
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Default Re: 'new' csa and the will to live

Hope you are feeling ok now, sounds like a nightmare (funnily enough like my phone calls to the Halifax these days!)

We had the same sort of thing when they changed the way DLA was pais around the same time as you. We had changed our bank details in that month, but as no-one had told us DLA would be paid differently, we had no idea it would be a problem.

Luckily the people at DLA and IS were a lot better to deal with.
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Old 7th December 2008, 15:08   #7 (permalink)
stardust_john
Gold Account Customer
 


I am in: Buckingham palace I wish
Posts: 416
stardust_john Novitiate
Default Re: 'new' csa and the will to live

I agree with you there.
I phoned dla up the same day funny enough to confirm I had rung them with new details (was doubting myselft then) and told they had all the correct details. I think the problem is the csa just go on the defence when all people are asking for is help and advice. I got the impression the woman who dealt with me really did not like speaking to people or definately had a chip on her shoulder.

The csa had been once a year sending me details of ex's payments to income support as she said, but they dont seem to give a dam that it can be a confusing time with all the benefits changing the payment methods at the same time. She just said not my fault, maybe so but it doesnt take much intelligence to realise if a person is on income support that there would not have been much involvement of csa payments apart from odd letter as it went straight to govt.

I remember a while ago it used to be all paid seperately and monthly and I was well organised, then they changed it to weekly and all paid together, now they change it back again on varying dates.

I think what makes me anxious is the fact that I shoiuld be confident that if they make a mistake, they will sort it out. Instead they say well you should have done this or that and I am just responding to each letter as they come, what else can I do

To be fair have to say when I phoned the income support people were horrified when I told them what happened and said they shouldnt have treat me like that. I am sure it will settle by Jan.

My one saving grace is that I had shut all direct debits down as I could see problems were building and therefore have still had available cash.
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Old 7th December 2008, 15:50   #8 (permalink)
emmaf01
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I am in: Liverpool
Posts: 2,074
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Default Re: 'new' csa and the will to live

You do need to protect yourself with these things, making sure you have enough money to live on.

Unfortunately I've just got my DLA renewal forms through, so that's thrown me into a panic (all contact with the DWP does that to me since an appeal fiasco a few years ago).

Hope all of this gets sorted soon- and the CSA should have notes on the system if the previous relationship was abusive (or at least they used to) to allow more sensitivity. Not that that is possible from some of the staff- emotionless cyborgs!
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Old 7th December 2008, 18:07   #9 (permalink)
stardust_john
Gold Account Customer
 


I am in: Buckingham palace I wish
Posts: 416
stardust_john Novitiate
Default Re: 'new' csa and the will to live

Awaiting the descision on my reknewal of mine also. Hope its accepted as it makes such a difference.
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Old 8th December 2008, 13:30   #10 (permalink)
emmaf01
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I am in: Liverpool
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Default Re: 'new' csa and the will to live

I'm off to the council welfare rights next Monday to get the form filled in. I couldn't even sleep last night with the worry. It isn't even up until May, but now I get to worry about it all over Christmas- Thanks DWP!

I don't know how we would manage with out it. And they scare the hell out of me.
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Old 8th December 2008, 13:44   #11 (permalink)
stardust_john
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I am in: Buckingham palace I wish
Posts: 416
stardust_john Novitiate
Default Re: 'new' csa and the will to live

I left my reknewal till last minute due to the stress of it and other reasons and the woman who dealt with me was lovely. She put me at ease because I tend to drivel on when stressed and was great. Funny enough just been told by hospital I have anxiety disorder and its out of hand, they are getting me on some tablets and will reasess me in a few months as to wether I will be able to go for counselling as well once stable.

When filling in the form the woman at welfare rights picked up on my symptoms prior to this and put down I was very anxious and a diagnoses of this was being assessed at the hospital as well. She must have had to pick this out from my rantings. Now I wouldnt have known to put that down but it turns out the epilepsy is made worse by this on a daily basis and I think her help was invaluable in wording it.

Ive had confirmation of receipt and keeping fingures crossed. I am holding on at the moment and would feel I would be shutting down without it as in quality of life, if that makes sence.

Best of luck with yours
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Old 14th December 2008, 04:39   #12 (permalink)
pugsley
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I am in: Near London
Posts: 747
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Default Re: 'new' csa and the will to live

I have twice complained about the csa on their website through the online form
Complaints - Child Support Agency

they actually rang me back quickly and both complaints got resolved quickly, one was about the arrears being low and these were raised to the 40% threshold

and the other time the arrears were paid to the sec of state rather than me and I got these back quickly through the accounts dept, they claimed it back
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