CSA may start to charge single parents for their "service"

[CubaCat]

I saw this article in the paper at my parents house today and quite frankly, am disgusted. How the CSA can expect us to pay for their shoddy service is beyond me. Not only that, but the Govt are being spectacularly naive if they think that this will stop couples splitting up, which according to this article, is their aim. People will still split up, but all this will do is allow non resident parents to get away even more with not paying maintenance because their ex may not be able to afford the CSA's fee, especially as they'll already have to deal with the costs associated with splitting up and becoming a single parent, such as moving house, dividing finances, hiring a lawyer etc.

If they start to charge us I for one will have to withdraw my claim, as it won't be worth my while paying the CSA just for them to administrate the measly £6.25 per fortnight that I get from my twat of an ex. It took three years for the CSA to get that out of him, even though I gave them his address at the time, his full name, d.o.b, employer details, his bank details, mothers address, where and when he played his sport and even sent them a photo of him when they requested one. I rang them fortnightly (at my own cost, to their expensive "helpline"), wrote to my MP three times to complain about the CSA and see if she could hurry them up, and kept the pressure on them so my DS would get the maintenance he's entitled to. In short, I more or less did their job for them - they should pay me. There's no way on God's earth I'll be paying for that "service".

I just hope this dickwad of an idea doesn't become reality.

I'm so angry about this I've set up a facebook campaign against these proposals. Please come and give the page a 'like' to register your support and don't forget we only have until 7 April to tell the government what we think.

www.facebook.com/pages/Campaign-against-Tory-child-maintenance-proposals/181887305175336?v=wall#!/pages/Campaign-against-Tory-child-maintenance-proposals/181887305175336?v=wall

I've written to several national newspapers to tell them about the campaign. Let's hope it works.

Single parents should be discouraged by the state, it is ridiculous that TWO adults can have a child and expect the taxpayer at large to pick up the tab! If child support law was more equitable then a lot of problems might be solved!

The only people the CSA should even be going after is the truly 'DEADBEAT' NRP!!! So long as BOTH parents are working to contribute towards the children they created then I don't have a problem with state support.

Economicslave, how do you keep fathers who want to fuck someone new and don't fancy staying with their wife and children anymore? and don't fancy keeping thier kids in a style to which they became accustomed to? That type of man may be a selfish twat, he still has freedom as a human being to fuck who he wants and do what he wants, the law protects his kids and enforces it by the CSA!

How ridiculous, just confirms what I already thought of the CSA. DP pays them everything asked, on time, always replies to letters (and this is for a child he didn't know he had fathered until it was 5) yet they send us letters threatening all sorts of action in advance if he doesn't continue to uphold the agreement. Close friends have been unable to get even a bean from ex husbands and partners that chose to have their children, yet the CSA are totally ineffective at chasing that up. So that this is going to be made even harder, and sorry to those of you that this will affect.

Berry do you think that they will add the costs on to people who are already in the system or is it just for new claimants?

Not all marital break ups are due to the man wanting to leave. Many separations and divorces, I suspect around 50% are initiated by women who no longer want to live with the father of their child.
Stereotyping nonresident fathers as men who have left their partners is silly.

I know that 2Rebecca, my response was to EconomicSlave who looks to have the impression that lone parents are state benefit scrongers by choice!

economicslave - I REALLY REALLY REALLY hate that kind of attitude, of single parents are a burden on sociaty. Parenting and nurturing the next generation is one if not the most important jobs there is, just currently society undervalues it soo much it trys to demonise them. I'm only too happy to see my tax goto other parents to help redress this glaring inballance, and to make do with less crap like iPhones and new cars. We get bombarded by the media saying possession of objects and clutter is what's important, so hence we devalue activity such as supporting others in our society because it has no direct relation to the individual obtaining things.

From my point of view there's more to life than obtaining wealth for oneself. Right I'm off to eat lentils while I read Das Kapital.

BerryLellow - I assume then that yourself and ex are the type of CSA claimants that the Governemnet believe do not need to be using the service at a cost to the tax payer, and therefore should not continue to use it, unless you want to pay for it, so that there is more funding available for your friends who have issues receiving money from their ex's.

MummieHunnie the plan is that all existing claims will be closed and then you will go through the same process as a new claimant if you wish to continue using the CSA.

This starts of with both parties taking impartial advice to try and sort it out between you without the CSA.

oh ffs, what evidence do you need for da then? he will have a field day with this... ffffffffffffffffuuuuuckckckckckckckkckc

you can't sort out jack shit with an emotional abuser.... I wanted no more to do with him............fucckkkkkkkkk

It does seem that there will be the facility to bypass the process, they state specifically for domestic violence, the consultation paper also says something along the lines of, difficult situations, can't remember the exact term, but as you say there will many who may not have been physically beaten, but have still been a victim of a abuse, and may even continue to be, my ex regularly tells me all my faults and swears at me. These people I believe should also bypass the system, perhaps some evidence of the abuse may be good. I know I will keep all my ex's emails where he continues to emotionally abuse me!

They are going to make it hard then it if is emotional abuse, I wonder what women's aid think about this?

"Single parents should be discouraged by the state"

No they shouldn't. Non paying parents should be discouraged by the state.

The CSA was actually set up by the Tories last time they were in govt, because they became aware that most NRP's didn't pay any maintenance.

The plans to make lone parents pay for its services, is basically saying that not paying for your chldren is fine - and also, that if you want any financial support for your children, don't expect the state to support you with that. After all, if you won't knuckle down to being married, you uppity bitch, you deserve to be poor. Who the fuck do you think you are, thinking you deserve to be happy AND still have your co-parent discharge his parental duties?

Quite possibly we are, but having tried to get information from them over the phone they don't half make it complicated
We're in the process of trying to set up a private agreement, it's very early days as we only met the little boy just before Christmas so changing it all takes time. The CSA wnat us to carry on providing the same information to them as we would if the claim went through them, just not put the payment through. I sincerely hope they don't plan to charge his mother for all of this.

BerryLellow yes they plan to charge the mother for this. There will be a charge for the calculation in the first place, and then if people actually want to have payments through the CSA they charge the NRP between 15 & 20% and the RP betweeb 7 & 12%. The figures are from memory of reading the consultation paper, they may be slighty off, but that was the gist of it. Actually if you know what the payment will be, it is just straighforward just make the regular payment.

Well that's what we plan to do, but the CSA are asking us to continue to provide them with figures etc regardless of the fact that we will be putting money into someone's bank account. So surely as they aren't working it out for us they shouldn't charge her?

What a shower of shits this government is turning out to be.

So is the charge in addition of the 15% for one child, 20% for two children and so on for the non residential parent? and is the 12% take out of the csa money for the child from the nrp?

Would it work like this:

NRP ordered to pay £100 per month

NRP pays £100 for child
NRP pays £100 for set up
NRP pays £20 per month for organising csa

RP pays £50 for set up
RP receives £85 out of the £100 paid by the npr for child per month

NRP pays £120 per month
RP receives £85 per month
CSA makes £150 as a one off fee, and £35 per month on the back of some poor kid who has both parents worse off financially and poor kid has a bad enough start in life as it is, and can't afford to go to uni for definate now!

It looks like a good money making scheme for the government!

oops I calculated 15% not 12% for rp

BerryLellow, I am little confused if your DP and his ex are all happy about how you are working it out, why are you talking to the CSA at all, why don't you just tell them you do not wish to use them anymore, that is a waste of the service if you are all happy to work it out between you.

I wonder what happens when the Non resident Parent changes jobs and everything is re-calculated - do we have to pay the set up fee again?

Probably. The only benefit there is that the npr getting charged every job change is that it will put them off, as some do it to avoid paying maintenance. They will end up with a huge debt to the csa (or what ever they are called) and the csa has lots of power now a days.

MummieHunnie, yes I think that is about the size of it, very helpful to the children, I suppose the 'Family' Friendly Government think that RP should be thankful for what they get and perhaps we should have thought a bit harder about ending up as a single parent. Obviously there are many ways this happens, and for many is completely out of their control. Perhaps the Government thinks that without their CSA service RP may not get anything which is true of courser, but that will be because the NRP refuses to pay, and therefore the NRP is the one who should pay the charges to the CSA if they refuse to pay RP without using the CSA.

just been reading all the posts on CSA, have got a private arrangement with my ex, but have been thinking of late about using CSA instead, as not sure if i'm getting what i should, bt by the sound of things they are rubbish, scared to death i will end up with even less !! Dont get me wronge i dont want to rob him of all his cash, and what we agreed over two years ago was fine then, and to be fair he had to pay his own rent ect, but now the kids are bigger, and wearing adult sized clothes, eating me out of house and home and i'm finding things a real struggle, he now has moved in with his new partner, (who seems nice)both work full time and each earn double what i do, and have only one set of bills to pay between them, he says he has no money and is 'skint' god knows how ?? i do my best and have taken a full time job, any ideas folks

AngryLisa I'll join the FB group as soon as I can but FB seems to be playing up today and I can't get on.

Reading all the new posts since I last read this thread, I could honestly cry . Like so many others, I've fought for 4.5 years to get a decent payment from the NRP, via the CSA,for my DS to get the £12.50 per month he currently gets. So, once I pay my 12% monthly fee, he'll then get £11 per month. I can hardly wait. In November I received six letters (yes, six) to inform me that my ex had been reassessed and I'd shortly start receiving £25 per week, plus arrears. Two months later and I'm still on £12.50pm, and all they will tell me is 'it takes time to sort out'. No shit, I've been waiting 4.5 years as it is. And they want us to pay for this?

As for having to reapply and attend mediation, well I'd rather not see my ex because he hasn't ever bothered seeing DS and quite frankly doesn't give a shit about him. So a/ he's hardly going to be agreeable and responsible and start paying via a private arrangement, considering he avoided paying for 3 years until he was taken to court and b/ I won't be able to trust myself not to twat the dickhead.

In short, for me to pay £100 upfront then only receive £11 per month, it's just not worth it, which means there's little point in me reapplying. So my cheating, lying, irresponsible scumbag twat of an ex will get away with not paying for his child. For him - result. For me and DS - disaster.