To think CSA are not doing all they could.

[phoebeflangey]

Cant believe someone can sleep at night that doesnt provide for their child. Ex in and out of work, and I asked CSA to do an attachment of earnings order as this has happened three times in a year, and they said as long as he intends to make a payment then they have to give the benefit of the doubt?! I understand I am lucky to even have £20 a month, as some dont get anything at all, but this payment was a lot more and included arrears, and stupidly I was depending on it. I have been left with £20k debt that I stupidly put in my name (over many years, due to his credit rating) that I am now having to pay via a debt charity, thus affecting my credit now. I work 55 hours a week, and manage all childcare and the bringing up of dd. I just feel so bloody angry

I keep hearing that the CSA are disbanding? Don't know how true that is...
I think they are a joke.. For both sides, they either over chase the paying fathers for ridiculous amounts or back off the ones who who don't pay enough, it always seems the wrong way round.

CSA have finished now. They aren't accepting any new cases thewicker

Ah ok, so how do absent (non paying) parents pay up now?

The Csa are not finished? I spoke to them this morning! They haven't accepted new cases since last July/August. Current cases like mine, they should be doing something about!

Be angry but get on with it. If a man doesn't WANT to support his child in the UK he doesn't have to & there is no wider social or political desire to change this.

I really wish ALL women were taught this while still at school. It would help future generations to avoid the spectre of child poverty from the off.

My dd1s father apparently has no income.

The csa have said if I cant tèll them when he has an income and he wont tell them then there is nothing they can do, they wont run a check periodically.

Their advice was to ring back in a year and the will check again if I ask but not before then and because his income is zero (which it wont be he will be working cash in hand) hes not even running up arrears.

To think im going to have to pay for this service soon. I will because I can afford to and to me its a matter of principle but a lot of single parents couldn't afford to especially.

Kimlo - annoying isn't it :( hope you get some luck soon x
Bochead - surely it's not the women who need to be educated ? What an ignorant comment to make! It's the people (male and female) that think they can produce children then never provide for them, leaving others to manage in very difficult circumstances, that need to know they have a LEGAL OBLIGATION to pay child support!!! What a joke!

The Csa are not finished? I spoke to them this morning! They haven't accepted new cases since last July/August. Current cases like mine, they should be doing something about!

That's what I meant, they're finished; aren't accepting new cases. Meaning only current ones only.

thewicker you need to go through CMS, but you have to pay.

Any maintenance collection needs to be a part of HMRC. NRP who are on PAYE are paying, usually. It's the self employed who cost the outsourced CSA money and killed it by being so hard/impossible to pin down.
I honestly don't know why it isn't part of HMRC - you'd think they'd want their tax as well!

Lion Nrps only pay via payroll if an attachment of earnings order is set up, and it takes a lot of failed payments and cancelled direct debits for the Csa to ask for one?

Yes, ex had an attachment of earnings and then almost immediately went self employed.
I don't know how it is now they are closing down, but at the time I was very reliant on that money (which was of course building up) so I was calling maybe every week or two. They seemed pretty pissed at him for giving them the run around and it only took 5 months for us to get it.

well ive had a letter saying my ex needs to pay £7.00 a week (wow!!) im pretty sure he has quit his job already he never pays they took him to court and his mammy paid the arrears which i received £0 then they found some money he owed me £90 apparently the other few thousand was money they spent trying to get him to pay the £90 he paid it to me at £5 a month then he paid nothing at all (again) im not going to bother paying for CSA or whatever they are calling themselves as i feel sorry for his other kids their daddy is always losing his job and blaming it on someone else

CSA are WANK

I'm currently waiting of arrears of over 10k, they say my ex is to pay me £155 per week so this figure is rising fast!

Ex says he doesn't work, I have provided evidence that suggest otherwise, full details, photos etc and they have done nothing expect go to court and put a libaibility order on the arrears and even they admit it's useless and they don't have a hope of getting the money!

They are to busy cashing up the easy cases and trying to screw over the people that are willing to pay rather than cashing the dickheads who avoid it!

Anyone running a small business will tell you that the means of enforcing debt in this country are inadequate. All debt, not just CM.

Unless the NRP is in steady salaried employment it is probably hopeless if he is determined not to pay.

He's quit his job again, hence the cancelled dd, back to benefits and the arrears just sit there ti he starts work again, and the cycle repeats itself. The CSA don't ever seem that surprised or bothered tbh.

Why is it an ignorant comment to make? As the protections afforded by the welfare state are being dismantled, this is becoming increasingly important for the younger generations to be aware of before they plan their families.

If you know a risk exists you can take steps to protect against that risk, especially when it comes to deciding whether or not to be a sahm. It's heartbreaking to see just how vulnerable a state some children are left in after a split - no parent wants to wind up in the food bank queue, or knocking on a neighbors door to ask for a tin of beans and £5 to put on the electric.

The CSA has been unfit for purpose almost since the beginning, and I'm still waiting to hear the long awaited media reports of it taking measurable steps to become an effective tool in the battle against child poverty.

Bochead - it was an ignorant comment to assume it's the women's job to be educated and prepared for this eventuality whilst at school. I was married and had no reason to believe the ex would become an ex, and not provide for his child. Whether or not the state systems are robust enough to ow through on what is LAW (which you made no comment on) is not the issue, the issue is in the non paying parent, not in the person who gave birth to the child.

*follow not ow

My Dsis had this with her ex, he pays 5 pound a week for their near 16 year old son. Despite the fact, he has new cars, 2 properties, sells pedigree puppies and goes on holiday alot.

He tried to get Dsis to drop the case in return for double a week. As if my Dsis is stupid enough to fall for that.

Bochead does have a point. Whilst some parents teach budgeting, many don't and don't extend on it with different scenarios.

It would be useful to both boys and girls to have some financial teaching on top of sex ed at high school based on reality not just their parents point of view. Could be covered in a few lessons easily. Too many have children with the blinkered view that it's all rosy and cute and don't give a thought as to the financial side (well unless you count checking for benefits) or what would happen if x, y and z occurred.

I think boc meant that women should be warned that society and the UK government have no will to ensure that men financially support their children and that we as women should therefore plan for being left in the lurch, disgusting though that is.

We educate people in self-defence after all, which isn't to say people should expect or deserve to be attacked. Ditto first aid etc.

I just had a conversation with CSA this week. I told them last Oct the name of ex's employer (the local council, so no fly-by-night employer) and his job title. All they needed was to call the employer. Seven months later, nobody had done so. Instead they faffed around sending a questionnaire to HMRC in March. Nobody replied to it. Nobody from CSA followed up. This week, someone from the CSA explained all this, and said he personally would phone the employer and would call me back the next day. He did so. I'm finally feeling a twinge of hope but trying not to feel too much.

I can understand that some cases are genuinely hard for the CSA to tackle, but mine is as easy as it gets - they just let months and months go by without doing the basics. And this despite emails and phone calls from me to them.

There are a lot of incredibly selfish and dreadful people out there. Women should not be so trusting that their DP's will provide if their relationship goes wrong.

Oh and I completely agree with boc BTW. And vivienne.

No amount of stamping my foot and insisting that my ex should be paying has ever made my ex man up OR made the CSA competent, it just made me stressed. Real politique innit?

I agree that financial planning should be taught in schools, it was the way that it was implied that women were to blame and bring it on themselves that I took offence to!
I also agree that the CSA are totally useless, and like Bliblio says some cases are as easy as it gets. The whole system is wrong, and by charging a fee in the new system, wont give them any further accountability to be chased up by those paying them!