jadeybags 2 years ago, only 50% of fathers were reported to the CSA, because there was no extra benefit to mothers. Then they changed the law so that mothers would get all their benefits PLUS all the cash recovered by the CSA (less their fee). Now 80% plus claim. It's all about money. Those stats do not lie. Now you get full benefits plus a top up. All women should work to support their child too. 95% of fathers who were the primary care giver lose the SECRET court battle to become the PWC. Unlike any other court, the Family Division does not keep any record as to sex, race or religion; neither is any judgement compared on a like for like basis; nor is it referred to the Common Law principle of the UK; Nor can any fact like a judge sending a child back to a paedophile ring be published - NICE! It's never a straightforward case of right & wrong, but time & again children are used as weapons by the PWC. I have no time for any parent who doesn't want to see or support their kids, but women who won't let the person who gave them their children & pay for them should let them see them, & let them see them without demanding more, more more. I've known 3 guys kill themselves over a lack of access.

My apologies but, What a load of bull. You did not commit any criminal offence, that's giant horsesh*t. A Penalty Fare is a debt due, or to stretch it - trespass, therefore they are civil matters & a civil debt. The rail company would argue you had breached the Conditions of Carriage (which aren't on any document you've probably signed, but would have been directed to - try that it any other business - HA). It's a breach of contract - CIVIL LAW! Obviously if you were a persistent offender, or fraudulently using their services this would turn into a criminal matter. Let me make this really clear - Fare Evasion is CRIMINAL & they will notify their prosecutions dept- if you are issued with a Penalty Fare the matter has been dealt with & it is CIVIL. You cannot be accused simultaneously of a criminal & a civil offence for the same thing! Law 201. Even the Railways Act 1889 s5 makes these distinctions. There is no criminal offence until proven in a court of law. Try getting a criminal conviction without a mens rea! Just imagine the case law that would exist if they were employing this as a criminal act. Magistrates, judges & juries are not going to drag an old lady into court & convict her because she forgot her OAP pass, so it's civil so it catches & fines even those that actually had the right to travel, & the "offence" cost the company not a penny in lost revenue - a victimless crime! To all intents and purposes RyanAir does this up front, where everything is a variation of contract! The rail companies are not being generous in issuing penalty fares. They issue penalty fares at up to 10 times the rate of prosecutions because they have little chance of winning a criminal prosecution in most cases, & even less chance of recovering costs. Magistrates know that people are forgetful, machinery breaks etc, & would see these as civil matters! The only thing discount cards should have on them is -"failure to carry this is gonna cost you £40,50,80 etc". A pretty simple idea isn't it? Yesterday, I had the same issue on a TFL bus. I also have an incorrect coding, & the additional fact that the system literally would not let me pay more with my oystercard. Get this too a judge & I'd win as it's a glaring technicality... however... A first appeal should not cost you any money. They will reject it. Sometimes there will be a 2nd appeal process - you will get a demand for the full whack. They will reject it. Then you will be allowed to appeal to the Independent Adjudicator. At this point they might be asking for twice the full Penalty Fare! All of this is a long drawn out process. You will feel your indignation flagging. You will wish you had paid the first amount! Any appeal to an IA must be on a point of law. Being issued an incorrect PF is grounds for appeal, & quite often a win. An incorrectly issued PF has no legal standing. The fact that you & your companion were issued different codes for an identical offence is evidence that one of you would have a decent chance of winning. Any appeal should be on those grounds. You'll need to spend a few hours trawling for information to try & find any success stories. Probably £42 worth of hours:roll:, but hey, you could be the first to even challenge on this basis!

Or have lots of children. Once you're beyond 3 it doesn't cost you anymore! The wonderful thing about the CSA is that it really hates men. I know a solicitor who had his kids exactly half the time in order to let his ex-wife work, & was still getting charged CSA maintenance. He refused to pay & spent a few weeks in jail. His kids are now all over 16 so he's now working abroad to avoid the arrears which on principle he won't ever pay. It's potty like all these nasty assed bureaucracies.

Santander is a F**ked bank. Santander does not get money for mortgages from saver's deposits (although look up fractional reserve banking). A mortgage contract with a bank magically borrows the funds into existence, so it should be win win. However, Santander is a Spanish bank, & anyone who has looked at property in Spain knew that it was overvalued years ago, & is still mightily overvalued now. There are a colossal number of empty buildings in Spain, & the banks still really hold these assets, which technically will become their liability as the money advanced to the constructors will not be recouped by their sale. Money market rates for Santander, & Spain in general, to stay afloat with all the new disclosures & capital requirements are therefore higher as they are more at risk of going bust. I saw more blatant corruption at all levels in one hour trying to do a deal in Spain 6 years ago, & walking away from it, than I ever have in the UK. The Abogados (lawyers), Mayors, vendors, you name it. We're not in a good way in the UK, but I'll tell you now that the balance sheets of Spain & its financial companies are just a cheery fiction. 10 years ago, the only people who had a variable mortgage rate 4.25% above base like Santander were lowlife lenders like Kensington who dealt with the riskier bets. My mortgage is 1% above base. Most SVRs are 3.5% above. That's so they can still pay out the £13 billion the banks still pay annually in bonuses I guess.

Emma, How awful for you, it sounds desperate, but you will get through this, hang on in there. I do not understand why you are paying anything at all though. If you are not in the UK (where are you?) the CSA cannot garnish your income. Change your jobs & your location & I doubt you'd even be found. How have they worked out £24,000? That would assume an income of £120,000 surely? If you are accruing debts, it might be time to leave that country too! Transnational personal debt is practically impossible to recover. If they are in the UK, you should consider getting a Time Order. At this point all interest is normally frozen. It doesn't help your credit record, but it will ease the stress & stop more interest accruing. You might also consider going bankrupt as you'll be out of it in one year. Your partner's ex is would now be getting full benefits with £24,000 on top, that's shocking. It seems incredible that the CSA would keep charging you that amount when you are in that much difficulty, but they are after all a bunch of cadaverous, larcenous, opaque snot-noses that need a good spanking with a particularly prickly & angry cactus. The CSA is a system, & you have to know how to play it. The UK is full of men who walked away from the assets in their houses. What are your plans (i.e returning to the UK or not), & what roughly are your earnings - are you paying more than 20% of net income? I hope your situation is a little better than it sounds. The way you've put it the best plan would be - move back to the UK, file for bankrupcy, claim benefits get free accommodation, & stick any valuables in a parents house! You can only fight for so long. You'll feel relief when it's done, & she won't be skinning you alive.

The Penalty Fare is brutally non-descript. It has the time, place, badge, route etc, & the Reason for Issue 9. It appears to be a JSA card. It is not Job Centre Plus. It's for 6 months, discounted for bus & tram use. No sanctions are threatened on the application form, & they are not straightforward either on TFL's Conditions of Carriage, which I doubt anybody has read. I can see a few points that a judge would find interesting, but Ircas would completely ignore. 1/ Incorrect coding. A Penalty Fare must be correctly issued. 2/ Absolutely no definition of a Transferred Pass anywhere that I can find. It obviously refers to a pass given to someone else, but is it also an all encompassing thing acting as a catch al? 3/ No ability to use an oystercard at the full rate if you don't have a photocard. Honestly, this is an area to exploit as the full oystercard rate is £1 lower than the cash charge. 4/ No clear indication of any sanction, & its level for mislaying your pass & using your oystercard on a bus - when you are fine on the Tube. 5/ If the pass was transferred, surely they should have taken it back. I wouldn't mind, but I haven't done anything wrong & this is a victimless "crime"! I think I've used it 5 times, saving me £3.25 versus £5 for the photos, & now a £40-£80 fine. If I'd done this last year it would have cost £25. The full fine is 1230% of the value supposedly missing, but which I was entitled to.For someone on JSA! Cheers Boris.

If you were going to be charged, you would have been taken to the police station. You do not have a criminal record, but the police will record the incident as they do with any activity. You were not read your rights & you didn't receive a caution if you didn't sign anything, & even then they would have taken you to the station. You will worry about this for a month, I'm sorry for that, but that's how we learn. You will probably receive no correspondence from the police. The one benefit of dealing with the police is that it gets easier every time. As for RLP, that's a nasty little number isn't it, a new one for me. From the the CAB's advice linked from this site, if you get any threatening letters, don't pay them. I received untold threatening letters at my address for the previous occupants debts for 10 years & never saw a dicky bird!

I didn't know I was getting a Penalty Fare at all until he handed it to me! None of the Explanations of Reason for Issue seem to apply. [ATTACH=CONFIG]38415[/ATTACH] In this link, a revenue inspector talks about passes they suspect don't belong to the holder & their judgement (edit- I can't post links yet, but it's Hafiza Revenue protection Officer on the TFL site). This guy didn't even tell me he didn't think that it was mine. By the way, there is no 50% reduction on the Tube, it is only on buses, which confuses things more, especially there being no facility to pay the standard Oystercard rate if you do not have a photocard, which is a bit of an error. 9-Transferred Pass - is considered one of the worst offences - I just didn't have a photocard. I thought they were meant to retain any fraudulently held oystercards. I just know it's going to be a waste of time talking to any bored numpty at IRCAS. Has anyone ever had any luck? I'm having a seriously bad run of it.

renegadeimp I didn't at first, & refused point to give my date of birth without being given a proper reason, though I ultimately did. As mentioned, many police officers (one who only had a year 1 grasp of English)were there, & several more inspectors. Unfortunately, it goes through IRCAS, & I would guess they are just rubber stampers. Has anyone had any positive experiences with them?

As far as I can understand, you just got a ticking off, & you'll be banned from Tesco forever! Some stores might use facial recognition software, so to avoid the embarrassment of being frog marched out of any Tesco's you probably should use a different branded store. As soon as the goods were paid for no crime had been committed. Tesco accepted your offer of payment so nothing should come of this. NB Richard Madeley was acquitted on the grounds of a memory lapse - it happens - but be more careful. I'm sure the experience of this shocked you to the core & you'll shudder at any Tesco's sign or commercial, but you will get over this!

Hi all! I was approached by a ticket inspector, or whatever they are called now, earlier on this evening. I had paid for my fare with my Oystercard (yes my Oystercard!), however thanks to Boris Johnson I get bus travel at half price as I've been stuck on the Work Programme. Unfortunately, I did not have my photocard with me as they didn't issue me a wallet, & I'd intended travelling home by the Tube. He took me off the bus (though never revealed himself as a revenue inspector) & asked me further details, he said to verify that the card was mine. It was, so I was quite relaxed about it. However, despite taking my details, taking the card number & also seeing bank cards verifying who I was, he wound up giving me a fine. I did not expect this, & he would not explain why he had, & the 10 burly coppers with him wouldn't let me ask him. I did not sign anything. The reason for issue is 9- Transferred Pass. I have looked on here & it seems this is a serious offence, however as mentioned, the pass has not been transferred & I provided all information asked. He actually expected me to pay £40 on the spot, but gave me back the Oystercard, so I am confused. Should I appeal, & how should I go about it? I also want to know if there is a facility on buses so that I can pay the extra 65p? I don't need a photocard to go on the Tube, so if I don't have the pass again, am I to be relentlessly fined? Any help would be appreciated.