AIBU to think that the government are trying to rob our children?

[ShirleyKnot]

AIBU for believe that the single parent's in our society are under attack - yet again?

Despite the statistics that show that 3/5 of us residential parents are in receipt of zero child maintenance.

Those who choose to use the CSA to chase non paying parents are now in the firing line..

From 2013
Parents using the CSA will pay £100 as an upfront fee (or £50 for parents on benefit) for those who want to use the future CSA. Only ?Victims of domestic violence? will be exempt (although there is no detail on how this will be proved or checked).

An on-going charge of between 7% and 12% on any maintenance paid to parents who rely on the future CSA to collect their child maintenance, as well as an extra 15-20% charge added to the non-resident parent?s payment.

Isn't this taking food out of my child's mouth?

What about victims of financial abuse? Are they going to count that in with DV

I just can't see it as being at all fair!

What?

I mean single parents who have escaped a relationship where there might not have been physical violence but their partners have used other methods of control such as finances.

Ie not allowing them any money at all and controlling all the family assets forcing them to stay or be compliant.

It strikes me that this type of abuser would be the worst at not paying knowing that the single parent having escaped such a situation would now have to pay for it.

It seems awful

CHRIST!

Are you having a laugh?

You think it's reasonable for NRp to have to pay to get the RP to pay?

Set aside your own prejudice for a moment.

I'm also slightly STUNNED at your bitterness at paying for HIS OWN SON for longer than you expected. MY GOD - THE HUMANITY!

"Only two-fifths (38 per cent) of single parents receive maintenance from their child?s other parent"

I am NOT BU. Get a fucking grip

I've worked out that if we continue to use the CSA, when this comes into effect, these will be the figures between Ex-P and me, for two dc. He currently pays £55 a week for the two dc.

With the percentage added to his payment as it is paid to the CSA being 15%, and the percentage being taken out of the payment made to ME by the CSA being 7% (the best case scenario), it would look like this:

His payment - £63.25
Maintenance - £55.00
I receive - £51.15

Which means that he pays £12.10 MORE than I receive. And I receive £3.85 a week LESS than I currently do.

With the percentage added to his payment as it is paid to the CSA being 20%, and the percentage being taken out of the payment made to ME by the CSA being 12% (the worst case scenario), it would look like this:

His payment - £66.00
Maintenance - £55.00
I receive - £48.40

Which means that he pays £17.60 MORE than I receive. And I receive £6.60 a week LESS than I currently do.

The other complication is that he would no longer be able to aford to do the stuff over and above maintenance that he does now, like paying for half of the school uniform, or half of the (extortionate, £120 a pair) cost of buying the specialist shoes DS2 needs.

Yet I was FORCED to go through the CSA due to being on Income Support. You currently aren't forced to do so, Labour got rid of that before they lost the election, but what's the betting that before this comes in , the Government bring that clause back in, that if you want to claim maintenance when you are on IS, you HAVE to use the CSA, so that they can extort the extra money from you?

I wouldn't put it past them, TBH.

Wonderful. Might as well stop bothering to collect the £1.80 per week XH pays for DD (on and off over the last eleven years)

As soon as I close the case he will finally decide to get a job I bet

YANBU.

Are you frothing now, Shirley?

#frothers.

Herbietea - Maintenance is ALWAYS payable until the September AFTER dc leave FT education, in case they change their mind about working, and go to FT college - plus it is easier to do check that those who are meant to be at college are attending / enrolled, rather than at work.

Most NRP's know this, and budget accordingly. Maintenance can actually be payable until the dc is 20yo, if they started the last year of their course aged 19yo. (very rare, but is possible if it is not a University course...)

YANBU

I am frothing.

Am waiting for an explanation of the horror of having to pay for a teen who had a job

Join the fucking club

.....

you should be prepared as a NPR to pay til child is at least 18 IMO and it may be longer.

I can't agree with Herbie on this one. They wouldn't take your income
Into account anymore Herbie... It's soley down to NRp income now, not household.

UANBU!

Children who are not living with both of their parents are disadvanted full stop.

Do people seriously think that taking a child's maintenance from children is a good idea? seriously? The government are Robbing children!

I am doubtfull that all domestic abuse will be taken into account, how will some people prove there was abuse in the relationship? not all cases go to court! and how can you prove emotional abuse?

It does not shock me at all that someone has posted they are resentfull of their oh paying the legal minimum the child is entitled to, I think that attitude is partly why the CSA is required!

Herbie, CSA don't take money from the partner of a NRP!

YANBU shirley. I get a whopping £25 per month child 'support', which equates to approx. 83p per day. As I work (part time on a pretty low salary, I may add) I'll have to pay £100 to reapply. That's four months worth of money. Plus they'll then charge me a monthly fee, which at the maximum suggested amount of 12% will take my maintenance down to £22. I mean, wtf am I supposed to do with that? It won't even cover the cost of school dinners ffs.

The CSA need to get their arse into gear imo. My ex has been reassessed to pay a larger amount but he is refusing to pay it and the CSA seem powerless to make him. He owes £6k in back pay but again, they seem powerless to collect this. He is completely non-compliant. I honestly despair and was on the brink of tears for most of today due to this.

My DS was planned. I did not get myself pregnant. I should not have to shoulder the entire financial cost of bringing him up by myself. There is no excuse for not paying child support, and there should be no escape from it.

YANBU

Its a fucking DISGRACE that it is easier to avoid paying for your children than for your mobile phone bill

I won't be bothering to claim my measly £2.50 a week if I have to pay for the privilege.

Yeah Herbie.

Please feel free to ignore the vast majority of CSA users - most of us get fucked in the arse and end up with shit.

Your story is one that endlessly gets picked up by the media...the "greedy" ex wife taking the food from the new wife's children's mouths.

Please.

Can you not, for one moment, look beyond your own situation towards the situation faced by 3/5 women who receive FUCK ALL? That's right. The MAJORITY of us get FUCK ALL support so excuse me if my sympathy is limited for you.

Unreasonable to pay for the children you spawned but not reasonable to have to pay for them? What the actual?

OP YANBU. Have signed.

It sickens me that poor NRP's are chased and forced to give so much even if they genuinely don't have it when well off NRP's find that loophole and abandon all financial responsibility after a separation.
More needs to be done to find the funds of these affluent avoiders.
The CSA have always been as useless as the miscreants who dodge their responsibilities.

they used to take household income into account - in the 90s when the CSA first came into existence. A friend went through this when her dh's ex demanded more money for her children and both their incomes were taken into account when calculating the payment. They were told at the time that the CSA were only obliged to leave them £10 a month better off than they would be on benefits, despite the fact that she had a child from her first marriage and they had a ds together.

But presumably this practice has now changed.

So op no yanbu to think the proposed changes are a disgrace, but possibly herbie is not bu either as at the time she was going through it might have been the time when the CSA took household income into account..

IMO the CSA has been a farce since its inception anyway...

Maybe if enabling second partners were not helping these affluent often self employed avoidering nrp, things would be very different for so many children who live in poverty compared to their half siblings who live so well, because wife number 2, hides funds to avoid her hubby paying for his children from the first family so she and her's can lead a good life at his other children's expense

The current laws have been in force for at least five years, and nrp get reductions for children they live with (even if they are stepchildren who get mainteannce from their nrp), they pay a legal minimum of 15% for one child, 20% for two children and 25% for three or more children they have they do not live, this is after a reduction for the children they live with. So nrp get to keep if no other children in many cases 85% of their income, they are hardly scraping by

yanbu
but doesn't surprise me.
this government like an easy target and vulnerable people are it

No second wife ever has any right to complain that they or their child is being left short. They knew what they were getting into, and the other wife and children were there first.