Let me tell you a little story about the Child Support Agency.
I was working in a job last year which paid little more than minimum wage. I left work for a while due to family problems. That happened in October.
At the beginning of November I called the CSA and told them what had happened. I'd gone onto unemployment benefit or whatever its called and I'm currently on Statutory Sick Pay.
After that I didn't hear another word about it until around April 2006, when they sent a statement which showed my account was now in arrears to the tune of about £400. I called them to find out why and they said not to worry about it as it just hadn't been reassessed yet.
The next thing I knew, about two months ago, I start getting odd phone calls. Someone was relentlessly ringing my mobile, then hanging up when I answered it. I ignored it at first, but one day I decided to call the number back to find out what was going on.
The person who answered said "Hello, can I take your reference number please?"
"erm... no. Who the hell are you?"
This was my introduction to Legal & Trade Debt Collection Services, who had been given my details by the Child Support Agency for a now outstanding debt of £820! I gave the guy on the phone an absolutely savage bollocking and told them not to call me again.
I got straight on the phone to the Child Support Agency in Belfast. They said that they had not reassessed my case since I left employment 12 months prior. They had basically sent the debt collectors in to recover a debt which only existed through their own incompetence.
The calls from Legal & Trade continued, until a couple of weeks later I got a letter from the CSA saying I NOW owed £0.00.
Imagine my surprise when I got a letter from Legal & Trade a week later, saying that they were instructing solicitors to prepare court papers re collection of £820!
At the same time I got a letter from the CSA saying they'd reassessed my case and I was to pay MORE than I was paying before (commencing November 06)! Even though I was on less than 1/10th of my income!
I got on the phone to Legal & Trade again and they said to send them a copy of the £0.00 letter from the CSA. I sent it anyway even though I did not consider it was my responsibility to tell them.
After yet more phone calls and more letters I called Legal & Trade again and asked why the hell they were still trying to recover a debt which the CSA themselves said I did not owe. They confirmed receipt of the CSA's letter (which I'd had to send), but said they needed to hear it from the CSA themselves. Until that happened they would continue to recover the debt.
At this point I decided enough was enough. The CSA were fannying about and not listening to a word I was telling them, so I decided to get Citizen's Advice and my MP involved. I saw Citizen's Advice on the Friday, my MP on the Saturday and told him what had happened. He said he'd ring the CSA on Monday and get it sorted. About ten days later I got a further letter from the CSA.
They'd now reassessed my case PROPERLY! And it only took 13 bloody months of aggravation. I've been on antidepressants since July over various issues and none of this has helped.
All of this is over a five year old child who I haven't been allowed to see since he was a month old, nor have I ever 100% believed he was mine anyway, yet the CSA accept my ex's say-so that I'm the father, have refused me a paternity test three times, and will hunt me to the ends of the earth for the next 11 years.
Why haven't I seen him for five years? Assuming I'm really his dad (and I really need proof after some 'personal effects' I found belonging to my ex), I cannot afford to fight it out through the courts. My ex and her family have made themselves unapproachable. Aside from that, the right time for me to get back into a child's life has long since passed. I don't believe there will ever be a right time to do it now.
Jewel is spot on. Every case is different and it really boils my **** when I see people sitting there damning absent fathers to hell. For some of us, there is no choice yet we're painted with the same brush as the irresponsible lot.
I'm in a mood now. I hate the CSA.