neal

Mrs.Neal here.
Does anyone know anything about the Australian CSA ie: do they deal with assessments and maintainence payments if you live in Australia and your ex-wife and children live over here(UK)?
As mad as it sounds we currently pay through the CSA and like having a third party to liase with the Dragon and pass on payments etc.BUT,we have accidentally over-paid and she refuses to give the money back.UK CSA do not have any power to make her pay the money back in case her household suffers hardship as a result(???? )BUT the Australian CSA have a policy for taking over-payments out of future maintainence payments and so retrieveing it that way.
Does anyone have any experience of dealing with the OZ CSA PLEASE????Do they take on where the UK CSA leave off?And can they retrieve over-payments that occurred before you were under their jurisdiction?
As you can see the flames aren't out yet. :scared:
Any help gratefully receieved Mrs.N

Sandy.l

We deal with Oz CSA. Our situation is the other way around though. We are in UK and hubby's ex is in Oz with their daughter.

We weren't contacted until they had been there for a couple of years as she didn't ask them to be involved. But she turned awkward when she didn't get her own way over something and told the Oz CSA she wanted maintenance payments of something like $250 dollars a month. Thankfully the CSA had more sense and sent us an assessment based on the info she gave them, we replied putting them straight on a few points (such as yes, we do have two dependent children even though ex said we had none) and we do pay all contact costs etc.. Anyway we now pay the minimum applicable rate.

The OZ CSA seem to be fair and they do actually listen. Unlike the UK CSA who haven't a bloody clue.

They do have reciprocal agreements and they are in the process of setting up better payment options across different countries so like us, you won't have to speak to your dragon either! I can't specifically answer your question re overpayments but we have found them to be quite approachable and fair. Hope this helps.

sandy

neal

Hi Sandy-thanks a lot for that information.
I agree that the Uk CSA don't have a clue.We paid through a private arrangement for 9 years until the dragon got p***ed off about us going to Australia and so got them involved just after Christmas.We like having a "go-between" as it were and pay through them so that we don't have to take any phonecalls from the dragon.
However there don't seem to be any rules/policies in place to protect the absent father(ie:my husband).The CSA were keen to know the details of the previous private arrangement when they wanted to make sure there were no arrears etc,but now that the original payment has gone out by mistake ,alongside the figure they're taking,they say they can't do anything because it's from an arrangement that was in place before they got involved!!!Double standards or what???
Also,as I said before they won't retrieve the money in case the dragons household suffers hardship-she's just bought a brand new car,has two holidays booked(one in a 5 star hotel)and doesn't use our maintainence payments but puts them into a savings account for the kids when they're older!!!!Not to mention the fact that she's married again so has two wages plus our payments going into the house....AAAARGHHHHHHH!
Can you tell I'm p***ed of??!!
The Australian website is looking promising though ,as far as being more thorough and fair,and you seem to feel that too,so here's hoping....Mrs.N

Sandy.l

We had similar problems with UK CSA, from the offset. Ridiculous assessment for one child, it was nearly twice what an adult got on the dole. Ex-Mrs said she wasn't working! Okay, so she wasn't when she filled the forms out but pretty soon was (FT as well) and didn't bother telling CSA. We kept asking for re-assessment but they weren't bothered and we just kept getting standard letters. Even after she had moved to Oz, we kept getting payment requests for dates they weren't living here, despite sending all relevant docs to them. Bleedin' hopeless. We did finally get some of the costs deducted as we were very persistent!

We had one request from Oz CSA for payment, we replied once with correct information, it was sorted straight away. The only issue we have had is that we no longer receive a monthly statement so it's easy to forget about payments, as there is currently no way to set up DD/SO from the bank. Every year we send a lump sum to cover the full year ahead, they seem happy with this, I just wish they would remind us. We used to get monthly statements up to about a year ago.

sandy

Sandy.l

I just have to add, that we have always been willing to support the upbringing of my husbands daughter, financially and emotionally, unfortunately, we have met with a lot of resistance along the way. As much as I don't want to wish my life away, I do beleive that things will sort out when my step-daughter is an adult. My husband loves his daughter dearly, fought for her not to be removed from the UK, now, hopefully, we will join her over in OZ in the next couple of years. The ex will really hate us then.

sandy

thewoods

hi

regarding csa - we were paying to them in uk for 8 years but when andrew stopped work to come over here he stopped paying to them there is no agreement over here whereby the aus csa can take money from a migrant with uk csa commitments - once your are in aus they cant touch you - we had no end of trouble with ex who kept sending nasty messages via a third party stating she was going to get a pi to track us down and get us sent back to england!!!! yer right - so now we have taken control for once and we pay monthly direct to the kids via my mother in law - that way the kids get the money to buy clothes etc and the mother cant spend it like she has done all these years- there will be people out there who wont agree with what we have done - but it is something we have wanted to do for ages and unable to do so cos of csa

maggy

we are also going to make payments to mother in law to ensure the dragon does not get her hands on the money. We paid £100 a week for the last year only for the dragon to continually slate us to anyone who would listen. She maintained that we did not give her a penny and did not care less about her son. I think justice will be done when she realises that she no longer has any control and cant fly off to America for weeks on end with our money which is supposed to be for her son, from now on her holidays will be in Butlins.

neal

Hi Mrs.N here-is this right???????REALLY?I'd never looked at it this way(ie:that not having the involvement of the CSA could be a GOOD thing!!!)I just saw it as a relief that we wouldn't have to communicate with the dragon anymore!!
BUT....now you've got me thinking!
We too have always supported Neals kids physically,emotionally and VERY financially,and have never tried to find a way to do them out of anything.But we have yet to accept their mother living it up on the back of our maintainence payments(if you add up her wages,her husbands wages,our payments plus child benefit for 2 children your eyes would pop out ).
And then there's the fact that she with-holds them for weeks at a time when she considers it "appropriate"(ie:if we don't give into her bullying on whatever chosen subject it is that week).She's having trouble on this one though cos the kids are old enough to argue their corner and they do!!!
Don't know what to think now though after reading this piece of info(not that I'm doubting what you're saying,you're living it after all)but the Oz CSA website(albeit very confusing)seems to have arrangements in place for"payer in Oz/payee and children in UK"-don't know what this means??
Interestingly the UK CSA did say that they have no jurisdiction over us in OZ and that there wasn't an Oz CSA that could touch us either so it must be right.They're disgusted with the dragons behaviour and have been very sympathetic to us,but sympathy doesn't get the money back does it???
Self-assessment does though...ha ha ha .
Thanks a lot for the support.
Mrs.N

neal

Hello all-thought I would post a piece of info I received this morning in case anyone is interested.
As I was unsure of the way we would make payments in Oz and also regarding the above thread reverpayments I e-mailed a link on the Australian CSA website and got a response today.
Apparently they can only deal with retrieving over-payments made through the Australin CSA,so no luck there.
Also,they say that the UK CSA and the Oz CSA are two entirely seperate organisations and have no connection at all.However the dragon CAN apply for an assessment direct to the Oz CSA ,or get the Office for Constitutional Affairs in London to apply for her,so apparently it looks like we can have an arrangement through them after all.
Don't know whether anyone has been in our situation ie: payer in Oz(us),and ex plus children in UK applying to the Oz CSA for payments??And if so how you got on with it all?The Australian CSA website seems to be more fair to the payer than the UK CSA but any experiences gratefully received!!!!
Mrs.N