CSA and Non resident parents.

[Carrymecarrie]

I found out last year that a non resident parent can go abroad and not have to pay Child Support as they dont have the jurisdiction.

Am I being unreasonable to think it's only fair (if contact is lost) that a default amount of money should build up (of say £10 per week eg) whilst the non resident parent hides and shirks -his- their responsibilities.
I understand this can mean non resident mums, but generally it tends to be the male that has the freedom to do this.

This angers me, AIBU?

By 'they don't have the jurisdiction' I mean the CSA.

Tis annoying, ds1 father left for holland before i had even given birth :( Ds1 is now 11 and i have not received a penny from his father. But at least ds1 is in no doubt about how his father feels about him. YANBU.

Ideally, all non-resident parents would contribute fairly towards their children. It's highly unlikely to happen, unfortunately.

Doesn't it depend on the country they have moved to? Ds's father is in Ireland, there's some sort of agreement there.

Are they actually exempt or is it that they have no effective means of enforcing the payment if the person is abroad ?

Obviously it's kind of moot as long as the person stays abroad but I assume that in the latter case if they ever came back there would be a big debt waiting for them...

No debt waiting for them, unless they worked for a British company abroad.
I had £5,000 owed to me which was wiped, they didn't even chase him.

You're right, the CSA have no jurisdiction over other countries. They've given me a number to contact though, a place called 'Remo'. They can organise a county court order to force the ex to pay. You could try contacting them, the number is 0845 345 5303.

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/DG_177531

The CSA have had the power to confiscate passports of non-payers for yonks. In theory this would prevent the "really determined not to pay at all costs" brigade from ever sunning themselves on a Spanish beach at the cost of their hungry shivering kids again.

They don't bother though .

Child poverty is not a priority of the coalition government and previous ones haven't done more than provide the odd soundbite.

Until we get to a point where non-payers recieve the same level of revilement from genera society as single Mothers who abandon their kids for a 2 week holiday in Turkey (rather than all year round like many absent parents!) nothing will change. It's culturally acceptable for men to abandon their kids in the UK. The political will just isn't there at present and lone parents need to accept that & plan accordingly.

All we can do is raise our children so that our grandchildren hopefully won't have to settle for this disgraceful state of affairs.