CSA error - Dad jailed in maximum security prison

COLTRANE · (#1 (**permalink**))

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' A DAD has been jailed in a maximum security prison over what he claims is a Child Support Agency error.

For years Chris Day has been locked in a battle with the CSA over child maintenance payments from his first marriage.

The CSA was demanding £621.36 a month from Mr Day when he only took home about £650 a month from his job as Harborough District Council dog warden.

CSA payments are supposed to be means-tested but, despite trying again and again to get the mistake co

corrected, Mr Day's second wife Rachael said they have always come up against bureacratic brick walls. Then, out of the blue, two policemen turned up at their motorhome in Marston Trussell and arrested him.

He is now serving a 42-day prison sentence for non-payment of child maintenance.

And to add insult to injury, the 48-year-old is locked away at Woodhill Prison, Milton Keynes – which the Home Office's own website says holds some of the most difficult and disruptive offenders in the entire UK prison system.

Mrs Day, pregnant and due to give birth in April, is struggling to look after their two young children in their motorhome, without any money but with a long list of unanswered questions for the CSA. Mrs Day (36) said: "It's been a nightmare.

"Six weeks is a lot when you've got two kids and one on the way. It's been really difficult, especially for visits because the prison is 56 miles away.

"Chris has never been in prison before and he's putting a brave face on it. It's been a real shock to the system.

"I have called the CSA but I haven't been able to get a straight answer."

The Mail has scrutinised Mr Day's mound of correspondence with the CSA which confirms it was demanding he pay almost everything he earned.

One statement shows an "adjustment" by the CSA after it admitted demanding an overpayment of £18,846.21 from Mr Day.

The payments revolve around two of his four children from his first marriage, which ended more than a decade ago.

In their search for a fair CSA assessment, the couple have:

Asked Harborough MP Edward Garnier for help in September 2005

Complained to the Independent Case Examiner in December 2005

Asked the Citizens' Advice Bureau for help in the summer of 2006.

Since he was jailed on January 6, the CSA has refused to discuss the case with Mrs Day because of 'data protection issues'.

The Mail took up the couple's plight on Friday and encountered similar problems.

In repeated calls to the CSA, it refused to comment on Mr Day's case. It would not even say if it would investigate whether it had made a mistake.

The Mail also phoned Northampton Magistrates' Court, the Northamptonshire Crown Prosecution Service, the Home Office and the Prison Service – all refused to talk about Mr Day's case. He is not due to be released until February 17.