Re: Tracked him down - now what?

Gaz,

Thanks for the reply. Sorry to be so tardy replying.

I have to say that, like you, we have despaired at the inefficiency of the
CSA but suddenly, they seem energised. They are actually calling us with
progress reports! Baliffs have been round and have secured cash and two
court applications to recover arrears are being submitted this week. We
shall see!!!

To clarify a couple of points, the children's father is the proprietor of
the company. Don't feel sorry for him as an "easy touch". He has been one
of the elusive parents for four years, failing to provide residential
address or company details. It is only through our diligence and
investigation that he has been cornered.

He is not paying "to the max". My wife was awarded a standard minimum
emergecy payment of £40 per week when he refused to co-operate but none of
this was paid. He now owes a good few thousands even based on this
emergency payment. One of the court applications is to get sight of his
earnings so that a true assessment can be made. (He is currently paying of
his new car at £2000 per month so is hardly on the breadline!)

Currently, there is no great animosity between my wife and her ex and there
has been a "private" agreement in place for a few months and which has been
declared to the CSA but this does not come close to his true liability. From
my part, I hate his guts and would be happy to make is life uncomfortabe
whenever possible but you would need to understand the history to understand
this loathing.


Rgds


"gaz" <gary.morris350@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1189210065.137692.254010@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 28 Aug, 16:52, "PDES" <p...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Team,

For five years, my wife's ex has been sticking two fingers up at us and
the
CSA regarding payments for his two children who reside with us. He has
always said "they will never get me" and has now ramped up a notional
arrears total of thosands of pounds (based on a CSA emergency assessment).
What really rubs salt in the wounds is that he is paid in cash and makes
no
secret that he deals only in cash, flashing wads of the stuff whenever he
can.

We are sick and tired of phoning the CSA every 9-12 months only to be
told
that there is a new case worker or that the previous discussion had not
been
recorded! However, we believe that the baliffs have been round to matey's
house but failed to secure anything as all goods are in his new partner's
name.

Now we have something of a breakthrough and would like your opinions as to
how best to proceed in order to secure the arrears and a reasonable
payment
going forward.

After many months of trying to put pieces of the jigsaw together, we have
tracked down his employer and their address. What's more is that the
"owners" of the company have nominated wifes ex as the "proprietor" as
they
are dodgy characters who we believe are banned from directorships. These
guys are paying cash to all their employees and our mole suggests that
they
are paying themselves massive amounts of cash each week - bourn out by the
aray of new TOTR cars. The company is registered at my wife's ex's rented
house.

The CSA asked us to let them know if we found out where he worked so we
are
ready to make this information available. But what will they be able to
do
with this information? Being the proprietor of the company does this give
the CSA any more leverage and can they go after company assets?

Thanks

Why not try to come to an arrangment with him and cut out the CSA
altogether? He may be avoiding them because he knows full well that
they'll bleed him dry once they have got their claws into him.

Don't kid yourself that the CSA is the answer to your problems. They
are an incompetent, shambolic and immoral organization. They don't
give a flying *** about the welfare of you or your kids, they're only
interested in clawing in as much money as possible from the 'easy
targets', ie. men that work for a living and are traceable. They
aren't given the necessary resources for tracking down the ones that
don't pay, because it's cheaper and easier to compensate for the
'deadbeat dads' by extracting huge sums from the ones that do pay.

It sounds like the whole thing has become an obsession with you.
You've spent 'many months' doing detective work, but I can tell you
that this is time wasted. They already say he owes them thousands
under a 'notional' assessment. Even if you prove that he earns good
money, the amount he owes according to the CSA wouldn't increase
because he's already been assessed to the max.

To answer you question, the Limited Company is a seperate legal
entity. Under the new rules, the CSA have some power to investigate a
Limited Company if it's set up in the name of the 'absent parent'. If
this were the case, they couldn't touch the company assets but they
could probe into bank accounts and company records and assess his
maintainence based on their findings.

However, as the wife is registered as the propieter, they can only
request from them information relating to the amount of taxable income
he declares as an employee. And you can bet your life that he's paid
minimum wage. In fact, if you were to sucessfully get an assessment
based on his taxable salary, he'd probably end up paying around £20
per week.

I very much doubt that the Company is paying 'wads of cash' to their
employees. Cash is very hard to come by nowadays, and you certainly
don't buy TOFR cars with it! More likely they are offsetting their
profits through the purchase of expensive vehicles.

I don't know the full details of your situation. This man may be a
complete arsehole who doesn't give a damn about his kids. If that's
the case, don't waste another second worrying about him. You may
justifyably be angry at him, but trying to force money out of him via
the CSA is a waste of time. Even if he is forced to pay, this won't
compensate for his heartlessness. A bad father is a bad father,
whether he contributes money or not.

My own violent alcoholic father walked away from me and my four
younger sisters when is was twelve, leaving us all peniless. As he
left, he said "Son, you are the man of the house now". So I got the
job of looking after my four younger siblings and emotionally broken
mother. We ate jam and bread for lunch, and after the elctricity was
cut off I buried our milk in a hole in the garden to keep it cool.
Miserly State payouts were topped up by a leaflet distribution round I
did after school until ten o'clock every evening. We never got a penny
from the ***. So don't think for a second that I'm defending
irresponsible fathers.

But if, unlike my own father, you think your ex may have an ounce of
decency, why not redirect your efforts into trying to build some kind
of amicable relationship for the sake of the children? The most
important thing for them is the relationship with their father, not
money. Get him involved in their lives, encourage him to share the
decisions and responsibility. Ask him to make reasonable contributions
towards their upkeep, instead of relying on the CSA to bully and
threaten him into compliance.

Gary.


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