CSA deduction from earnings leaves me broke

They are leaving me with 5 pound a week to live of as I make £370 before tax and ni after that it's 274.02 they want no demand I pay £269.25 so less than £5 a week still have rent etc to pay surely this ain't right

I have 30.000 grands worth of arrears for both of my daughter's.
One of which I have always provided for and the other I have been told to never contact as I'm as far as the mother is concerned not her father.
I work 6 days a week to be able to afford the rent and usual bills that every man should be expected to pay.
In no way do I dispute that I am responsible for the financial upkeep of my children.
I earn 3.000 per month, my rent is 1300. Per month.
After csa I'm left with £64.00 p.m to live on.
I have a car but cannot afford to tax and insure it to make the effort to see my children.
Please let me know if you too are having your back side ripped out too.

I am in full-time employment, I earn £8:42 per hour. I am paid monthly. The CSA deduct £320 per month from my wages. I take home £880 per month now. My daughter, of whom I have shared custody, lives with her mother who has now moved over 100 miles away and as she is a single parent on benefits (despite moving away to be with her new partner) the court has deemed I am solely responsible for all travel costs. I have fortnightly contact with her and travel to collect her & take her to my home on a Friday night after work, then travel to take her back to her mothers house & return home on a Sunday evening, so I make 4 trips of over 100 miles, every fortnight. Despite repeated contact with the CSA, they still refuse to change or review the amount I pay or to send out any claim form for travel costs incurred. I have now stopped speaking to them on the telephone altogether and only deal with them in writing, so I have proof of all correspondence. I am at my wits end as I can now no longer afford to travel to see my little girl (she is 8 years old) because of the amount of money the CSA are taking from me. Shy of quitting my job and moving I don't know what to do, and if I quit I can't get benefits to live, and I don't have a job to move to, it took me 3 years on a recruitment agency job to be taken on permanent where I am. If possible, is there anybody reading this who could please point me in the direction of somebody who could help me when it comes to dealing with the CSA..? I cannot afford a solicitor or lawyer, I can now only just barely afford to eat, live and go to work.

The new child maintenance dept encourage ex wives to prevent access. That way they get more money. My ex agreed shared parenting. She refuses to let me see kids. I have now got to sell my house and give up work because of impossible payments demanded by child maintenance. My view is this is theft by deception which is a criminal offence punishable by jail. The welfare of children is nowhere in this policy. It is a disgrace.

a friend of mine is currently out of work - he paid cash payments regularly to his ex as maintenance, she claimed benefits - now says he didn't make the payments and CSA want £12,000 - he cannot afford re-payments, pay rent and eat. What is wrong with this government - if he can't afford rent bills and food whilst working cos of the CSA repayments and therefore he will not be able to continue working - catch 22! He sees his 2 children regularly but cant afford to take them out other than the park - feeding them when they stay is difficult. His girlfriend, my daughter is at university and has no income to support him - they will probably split up over their financial stress. He is a lovely man and his life is in tatters over the governments cruel and immoral treatment. This is heart felt as my daughter's father and I split after his previous partner said he hadn't paid maintenance - CSA took most of his earnings - he had to pay an ex and 1 child double what he, myself and our two children had left to live on - we went through financial hell - and went our separate ways - and who suffers ultimately? Yes - the children. This is just a form of theft from innocent decent people to claw back money lost due to poor management by government departments. The Government are employed by us to look after our welfare but they forget that they are working for us - lets put them on performance related pay and see how they cope when outgoings far exceed their income.

My ex pays 3 pound per week for his two children through the csa and he works full time.

As a single parent of 3 who the csa fail to make her ex pay maintenance for i can see both sides , the fact is it costs money to raise your child and most fathers pay this knowing that it is a fact you accept when you become a parent , you are financially responsible for the life you created , although i think this applies to both the mother and father , my ex has a good job hes a high earner yet takes contract work and makes the csa chase him by earning arrestment each month every time he jumps jobs but the way i look at it is if i don't get anything neither the children or i ever have to thank him for it .i just work and do the best i can. You can ask them to review your circumstances but the long and short of it is that they will expect u to have taken your financial responsibility into account before you decide where you live , lifestyle etc as for most parents do , they would also take into account if u have her for weekend s etc that you can ask for a reduced payment as you have financially provided for them when with you .....long and short of it ... Its idiots who avoid and pay nothing like my ex who make it harder for the ones who do pay

Why don't u just stop working and get on the dole and start paying ur ex £5 a week coz that serves her just about right. Why allow her to sponge off you and live a high life?

I am a father of three. I love my children to bits, I can't be without them. however, I've been married almost 13 years and my wife is the most nasty, viscous, manipulative and vile person I know. I left in 2008 as I justajust couldn't take it anymore. after a couple months of a fair agreement of a percentage of my wages this was suddenly increased to a ridiculous amount forcing me into a bedsit, deep into depression. I couldn't see a way forward. nowhere decent enough to have my kids overnight, no money to do anything with them when I saw them at the weekend. eventually I chose to go back. keep my head down, keep quiet just so that I could be with my babies. it's now 4 years on. my wife has continued to be abusive to me and my children, I have involved the school's, social services, the police and sod all gets done. I am now at the end of my tether. I will not go back to how things were in 2008, the csa have made me so fearful of that. but I'm also tired of seeing my babies get abused and being abused myself. I can understand why nrp end up killing themselves, I fear I may be one of them. this is no life for anyone, and the alternative just as hideous.

they make up amounts of money you owe. they dont listen.they dont care.they must be from another planet with the demands they make.they spout shite on the phone. i basically got robbed by them.i nearly lost my driving license because of them.but to be fair the only person i ever spoke to and got any sense from was one of there money bailifs who said that they do what they want.also you cant do anything about wrong amounts they say you owe.he also said the money they say you owed was the queens money and the queen lets nobody off the hook whether your in the right or not.he agreed i was in the right but he said if its the csa its tough shit.

I am a 21 year old student who has a father who has scammed me out of maintenance since 2005, and the CSA wont make him pay because he has all his money in his girlfriends accounts. THIS IS WRONG!!! If your old and mature enough to put your sperm into a woman and make a child then you should bloody well pay for it, its not right to run away live your dream life and scam your children, thats how the scum of the world live, so man up and be a father! And as for all of you advising him to transfer his money and make out as if he has none, you are scum. There are so many good men out there who love and care for their children, thats how it should be, do you know what it does to a child knowing your father, your own flesh and blood would rather shove his dick wherever he wants then just leave and not give a damn about you, infact would much rather spend time and effort doing his best to make sure you get nothing. Makes me sick

I get £5 a week from my ex because he can't be bothered to work. Both my husband and I work in order to support my three children, and the CSA want to take almost 400 a month off of us to pay to my husbands ex. They don't take into account that I get no maintanence from my ex, nor the fact that we are thousands of pounds in debt from debts that my husbands ex left him with (he didn't want to pursue her through the courts because he didn't want his children to suffer financially). She is remarried, her husband has a well paid job, and they claim all relevant benefits, they deliberately moved to the other end of the country so that my husband can't afford to see his children - how can this be fair? The children that actually live with us are suffering financially now, while she sits there living the high life off of my husbands hard earned wages!

As a full time working single parent, I was left for the first five years of my son's life solely supporting him. But I didn't go to the CSA. For the past 12 years I have been given minimal maintenance. But I didn't go the CSA. My 17 and half year old son has now gone to live with this father as he was getting in with the wrong crowd where we lived. With working family tax credit, child benefit and maintenance I have lost a major chunk of my income which helped pay my mortgage. The father obviously doesn't pay his minimal maintenance now and is claiming what he is entitled in child benefit etc etc. (my son is now in higher education). This is how it should be. However, he is now advising me that he is going to claim maintenance off me. I will not be able to pay my mortgage and the debts that I have due to trying to support a child as a single parent for all these years. He is an example of why good father's get lumped in with selfish and greedy pieces of rubbish. No gratitude for the years of looking after their children while they enjoy the good life.

If anyone has advice on claiming back the five years without maintenance through the civil court process please post a comment

I am paying CSA and travel 100miles round trip to see my Daughter. I have never moaned as I love seeing my Daughter. But my ex (recent) is pregnant at the moment, she knew I wanted the family life, knew all the court stuff with my other ex (I took her to court to see my Daughter), knew all my financial details, knew all my weaknesses. When she fell pregnant, as they always are, unexpected. We discussed an abortion and she fed me all the lies and things I wanted to hear, I love you, want a family etc etc. I was the one with the doubts, but she later admitted (once an abortion was too late) she had no intention of getting one and didnt even want to be with me. So I freaked and asked why did she openly discuss it with me.........no reply, but the anwer is the £££££. Now she just ignores me completely. I know it takes two to tango, but what gets me is when women can be all about stiffing the man and using the kids as weapons/cash cows. My first ex wants me out of my daughters life, I have over 4k in court fees to pay, plus CSA plus all the travel costs etc. Adds up to a minimum of £500 a month to see my Daughter (31% of my monthly wage) now have another baby on the way and a similar situation. I cant afford my own place, etc. BUT I AM NOT MOANING about the expenses, I am moaning about lying b****s lying and putting themselves first. It bugs me my ex walks around in nice 'big label' clothes, has a nice house and a car plus having nights out and doesnt work even half as hard as me. She sits on her ass and gets handouts, my recent ex is the same. CSA payments should be worked out better, the 'payment officers' should go out on the beat for god sake. It has now got to the point financially that i can either a: drop court battle/future court battle and give my ex's all the power and control they want, shutting me out of my kids life and still taking the money or b: end up topping myself as it seems a whole lot less stressful than 2 court battles to see my kids and see over 25% of my wage go to my greedy exs through CSA who will waste the cash and another 25% on activities for my kids (travel, activities, food, etc)

As a Father, if i had full time care I WOULD ONLY ASK MY EXS FOR HELP IF I NEEDED IT. A lot of the stories I hear from guys in work leads me to believe the majority of women have no pride. These 'women' bang on about how great a Mother they are but fob their kids off to whoever and go out on the p***, eat out all the time, take drugs, smoke etc etc. All i do is stress, go to work, stress there, then back home to stress some more. I am lucky if i can afford 1 night out a month at a cheap pub never mind nightclub. I have quit smoking too and the weekly treat of a takeaway has been scrapped as well.

I wouldnt cash in on the biast law and rub it in their faces I can get a house and all bills paid on benefits, drive a sporty car and wear nice clothes without a care in the world!!

The majority of women out there should come out from behind their kids and stop hiding. I have MAJOR respect for the women who work and have full time care, or the ones that have the men just walk out on them and their kid(s) But the women cant keep the good men and fathers on a lead and torture them. Truth is, women have all the power and the law allows then this luxury. Like CSA doesnt take into account all the court dealings where I have to pay FULL court fees while my ex (and recent one will too) get full legal aid and dont pay a penny??? My court fees are the same monthly as my CSA. CSA should look into more detail of the payee's financial state before pushing them to the edge of the abyss.

I dread checking my bank balance while my ex's laugh all the way to the back.

it is just wrong!! RANT OVER

Csa kept Phoneing me..... n i told them to F---k off n i see u in court they wont even take me to to court cuz i will be xplaining to the judge where they have messed up! iv asked for a statement on where iv missed payments so i can see where its all gone wrong. i explained like a elect/gas phn bill u have it written down i just need a statement to see whats been paid and where iv missed payments and they cant even provide me with this... basically they mess me around i will mess them around tic for tac n they dnt like it.