Charging parents to use the child support agency

[unta]

www.express.co.uk/posts/view/222210/-Fee-to-parents-who-split

Please read todays link in the daily express

In this economic climate whereby we are supposed to be tightening our belts we are now asked to pay for a service that is diabolical and unfit for purpose!

My children are owed in excess of £42,000 in uncollected maintenance you tell me if that's a service worth paying for when we below the breadline.

There are charging orders on my ex-husband?s house , a suspended sentence of 42 days and the court has ordered he pays £100 per month of the arrears, which he does pay, but meanwhile £434.94 per month current maintenance is owed each month and is not being paid. ?The agency has powers to enforce arrears but not current maintenance?, ?So month-by-month we are not receiving the £100.37 that the appeal (known as a lifestyle departure hearing) assessed him as liable and able to pay. And as for the arrears, if he goes on paying these at the current rate, my sons will be aged 67 and 69 by the time the debt is paid off?.

You would be better occupied by passing legislation that states that an absent parent is to pay maintenance which is sadly lacking has been for the past 20+ years!

Well precisely. You never know, they might even use the correct figures that way.

You know, I really don't think there are that many NRPs who object in principle to supporting their children. Perhaps I'm being naive. But I truly believe that the major problem is the horrendous track record of the CSA and the massive unfairness that it has overseen over these two decades. If only it had been administered properly, and fairly, from the very beginning I doubt there would be a tenth the arrears that there are.

I don't agree. I think there is a proportion who have been genuinely unfairly treated. But I think a larger proportion use the CSA's ineptitude as both an excuse and a means to avoid their responsibilities.

Yes, but don't you think people avoid them because of their reputation? My DH was absolutely terrified when they contacted him, and his fears were well founded. Are people terrified of the Student Loan Company for example? No, because you know what to expect and the demands are reasonable. Not so the CSA. They're a law unto themselves - always have been - and they destroy lives. Things are much much better now, fairer and more transparent. But many people remember the bad old days, or are still trapped in that system.

I agree that CSAv1 was dreadful in both design and execution. Anybody still stuck with that have my sincerest sympathies. And CSAv2's only real improvement is that at least it's a much more simple calculation, even if the CSA's efforts at carrying out that calculation is still crap.

And I agree that PWC do tend to think very carefully before getting the CSA involved and that is to a large extent a result of their woeful reputation.

But that careful though in the face of all the evidence showing poor past performance does imply that a PWC who decides to go to the CSA tomorrow is probably doing so because they have no alternative. For the most part, that has to be because the NRP isn't paying maintenance the way he/she should.

If the NRP was regularly and reliably paying a reasonable level maintenance then there would be no need for the PWC to go to the CSA. Sure, there was less choice over this in the past if the PWC was on benefits but that's not the case any more as I understand it.

So if we have a NRP who isn't paying before the CSA gets involved, and then continues to not pay after the CSA gets involved, that's not really to do with the CSA's past cock-ups is it?

I don't agree Snorbs.

There are plenty of PWCs who go to the CSA thinking that they may actually get more maintenance, and of course the many on CSA1 who had to go through CSA anyway due to benefit rules. A PWC might just use the overnight stay rules as a means to getting more money too...it happens :(

If an NRP isn't paying before the CSA gets involved, and continues not to pay afterwards, it is indeed a CSA cock-up. They are there to make sure the NRP pays..not just continue to hike assessments on those already paying.

I'm fairly sure that the creation of the CSA and all the publicity around catching feckless fathers and single mothers being the downfall of the country, going on when I was pregnant, scared the hell out of DD's father to be and set the scene for his reluctance to become fully involved with her .