[Sparkle]

For years its often been said that the CSA have greater powers than the police, it's the truth.

The scary part is that the person wielding it is none other than a social worker, or someone with no formal qualifications working in a call centre somewhere, and yet they're playing God with people's lives.

The internet is abound with threads by NRPs who are seeking help because a vindictive ex has conned them out of tens of thousands of pounds over an extended period of time. A common example seems to be a split mortgage, where he was paying in cash (as child support) but little record exists.
Ten years goes by and she tells the CSA that the NRP hasn't made any payments, they take her word on it and he's being chased for £18K or thereabouts - it happens. Some people really are vile individuals.

The CMEC can also force you to sell your house and move into a flat (they pocket the difference), I believe the CSA had this power too, but due to fear of a public backlash they seem to use these powers sparingly.

The CSA/CMEC is the devils spawn, they go after the easy targets.

However, one good thing I can say about the CMEC is that they have said that they actively encourage parents to make their own financial arrangements, and also all moneys paid will go to the other parent. Until recently, the dad paid a fixed fee and if she was signing on only some of that money would go to the mother - the rest to the treasury. This is part of the reason the CSA would use unscrupulous tactics to get dads on the system - to extract as much money as possible. The problem is, its the good dads who are paying for the indiscretions of the bad ones ! Which isn't fair.
The CSA have even been recorded advising NRP's to use credit cards to pay money owed (which is illegal), only adding to debt problems.

Never call the CSA/CMEC without recording the call - they will lie and have been caught out numerous times. Some recordings have been put on youtube.

There was a case I saw on a documentary about a year ago (panorama maybe?), where a pensioner had his pension funds confiscated by the CSA. Apparently a young girl had said he was the father of her child, the CSA maintained they sent out a letter to the pensioner giving him so many days to reply otherwise they would assume him to be the father. Apparently he didn't get that letter, and of course he wasn't the dad.

Also, lots of horror stories of the CSA even admitting that they've overcharged many thousands of pounds, and it takes years (if ever) to claw any of that money back.

---------- Post added at 14:46 ---------- Previous post was at 14:39 ----------

Another common horror story is when the dad is a contactor. To calculate how much you can afford to pay, they ask to see the last 6 months wage slips. They'll pick the month where you did the most overtime, in some professions this could be double or triple the earnings of othe months. They'll then use that month to work out your monthly CSA payments. The quite months were you cannot afford to pay it will end up as debt, which they'll chase you for indefinitely.