CHILD SUPPORT!???? what do they do again? (There ought to be a law about that!)

Member Name: fluffyjinx

Product:	There ought to be a law about that!
Date:	07/04/05 (453 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: sorted quickly, less stress

Disadvantages: can be difficult, can cost in phone calls

Just to inform you before you start reading that this review is based on the advice and happenings of the past 4 years with friends and collegues that i have known and still know and not of any large variety of people.

* this stands in for names as no real names have been used in this review.

CHILD SUPPORT AGENCY- there ought to be a law that says ' leave your children, pay money you owe now' and the CSA need to get there act together!

I would like to share with you a particular case that has now been resolved and to this point i will tell you how this happened and exactly how long it took.

In october 2002 Alice* split with her husband and father of her child due to the abuse that she had suffered from him came to a head with a court hearing, fine and ABH charge on her husbands part.
Left with an under 1 year old to care for Alice* gave up work to look after her and applied for income support- Goverment benifit for people who can not work- With in the application is an area for CHILD SUPPORT which she filled in with great care making sure that the information she needed was correct and would make sure she would recieve payments from her soon to be ex husband.

The income support form was sent back and 3 weeks later Alice* had a visit from an INCOME SUPPORT OFFICER to discuss her needs and CHILD MAINTENANCE. All of this was completed and signed for and the officer left saying that everything would be sorted out with in the next three to four months for child maintenance and 2-3 weeks for the income support.

ALice* recieved her income support and heard no more from the CHILD BENIFIT people, taking what she had been told on board she did not contact the CSA until May 2003.
After being pushed from piller to post with in the CSA she finally got through to a CASE WORKER only to be told that she had never been heard of and that she would have to fill in another form to apply again. Alice* did this grudgingly and waited for a reply.

After another few months of waiting she decided to phone again, to her suprise yet again the CSA had never heard of her, so yet again she filled in another form. This time it was slightly different, in july she had met Brandon* and they had moved in together, he was working full time and now because of this Alice* was entitalled to FULL CHILD MAINTENANCE but yes youve guessed it they still didnt know who she was!!!!!

After almost 2 years of this I advised Alice* to go to her local MP.

2 WEEKS later she recieved a call from the CSA and they sent her a direct phone number and name of her case worker and the forms (AGAIN) Although this time they do know who she is and they sat waiting for the details to reach them.

You will be pleased to know that Alice* recieved all 3 years compensation from the CSA and is now recieving her maintenance every week on time.

NOW THEY KNOW WHO SHE IS!!!!!!

But why did it take so long?

The benifit system looks at what you can get NOW not later, they deal with what is happening at the moment and regually miss things such as CHILD SUPPORT issues. Every time Alice* applied it went through her income support claim and after a year the claims are disposed of so there is no trace of previous FULL records. The CSA only deals with claims that they actually recieve from the date they get them if they dont get your claim you are not entered on to the system- in other words they dont know who you are-stamping your feet doesn't always help as they just don't listen to you.

My advice-

Don't wait for them to contact you, if you have to be on the phone every day then do it!
If they start mucking you around speak to their complaints department, get them to send you another form with a self addressed envelope so they can not say its gone else where.
If you don't get anywhere after 6-7 months max take it to your local MP who will usually be more than supportive.
If none of the above work find out where your local CSA office is and pay them a visit, fill the forms in there and get someone to give you a signed reciept that they have recieved it.

Most of all GOOD LUCK after all you may need it.

Summary: