Challenge the Proposed CSA changes

[ShirleyKnot]

Could we talk about having some sort of campaign to bring awareness (and hopefully some action) for the many thousands of lone parents who are receiving pitifully small sums of money, or nothing at all, from the NRP?

I have been reading about the proposed changes here and I'm HORRIFIED!

I was on a thread recently here where many posters shared their sad tales about feckless NRP being asked to pay pennies per day for their children - and still not receiving even these pathetic amounts.

It seems that the CSA is a fairly toothless beast.

On a personal level, I have recently claimed for my two children (14 and 11) after nearly 10 years of no financial (or any other!) support.

My X refused to answer any of the CSA letters requesting salary information. He is self employed and therefore impossible for the CSA to get access to his income (although they do ask the Inland Revenue for previous accounts - in my X's case he hasn't submitted returns). Eventually an order was placed on him for £40.00 / week. Should the Inland Revenue not now be investigating why he hasn't paid any tax in the last few years? Surely this should be automatic?

He has not paid. I contacted the CSA today to ask what was happening with my case and was informed that they can't start court proceedings until the arrears mount up to £500.00 or 13 weeks worth of non payment.

The point of this is that, I'm used to it! I scrape by on my wages and we're fine - but what if we weren't?

What if I needed that £40.00 to feed our children?

I'm hoping that others will come onto this thread with ideas of what form this campaign should take - and also to maybe confirm the vague feeling I have that lone parents are going to be asked to contribute towards the CSA's work via their maintenance payments. (I may have this wrong)

Let's try and change this shall we? Or at least make a stand?

Its because only money grabbing cows go to the CSA. All men are reasonable about paying maintenance but their greedy exes want more, so should rightly pay to use the service.

Greedy cows like me, who dont think £2.50 a week is enough to feed and clothe a planned, very much wanted now 14 year old. I do get on with my exp reasonably well in that we speak, can even have a laugh at a push (and his partner is a lovely woman), but he is a complete arse about money, "you chose to have custody so it 'aint my problem" school of thought.

There's no way he'll pay anything without CSA involvement and im still waiting for them to pull their finger out and actually contact him because it doesn't matter when you apply, maintenance can only be backdated from the day they contact the nrp. I dont know what's so difficult about making a phonecall, to his number....which I supplied months ago, or to send a form to his address, which I also supplied months ago. Even if he refuses to supply details, they can trace his employment anyway...fair enough, he has to be given a chance to comply, so ring him, send him forms but ffs, contact him...this is the part I dont understand, this is the easiest part surely?

I have a looooong history with csa, (mainly regarding dd's father but that's another story). I could happily rant about them all night

How strange.

CSA to be scrapped

"The Government also plans to increase the amount paid by parents not looking after their children beyond the £7 a week planned. The current rate is £5."

Any idea what this statement means?

I'll sign.

I'm very lucky in that respect as exP pays for his kids and has done every month in a private arrangement we've made but I read and hear about others who get no help at all and for them I'll sign.

Please, please PLEASE read the new link in the OP about the proposed changes to the CSA.

£100 payment up front to the agency (from the person seeking maintenance) and a percentage taken off any maintenance retrieved.

THIS IS APPALLING.

What the statement means is that if the NRP is on Jobseekers or Low Income they will pay £7 per week instead of £5. I'm really struggling to decide what I'll spend the extra £1.40 a week on.

The other stuff about deducting from employers and benefits at source is done already, so overall what they are trying to dress up as a bonus for children is actually a move to charge parents for using their services. To save the taxpayer money.

Perhaps if they actually collected the money that NRPs should be paying, it wouldn't cost the taxpayer 40p for every £1 they collect

Can't see a link to the up front payment bit?

Seriously.

I'm wondering if MN might team up with Gingerbread - initially to get the bloody message out there - because, honestly?

I'm not sure many people know that this is on the cards...

It's on the gingerbread link. £100.00 up front (£50.00 for those on bewnefits )

"?£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"

VILE

Sorry, it's in the op...thought you meant post from earlier today.

How strange that the up front charge wasn't mentioned as the way they will be saving Wanky Osborne the taxpayer money.

The Government had the perfect opportunity to fix the broken CSA. Instead they provide Lone Parents with DETTERENTS to trying to claim maintenance from their Ex-partners. FFS.

I think the charge upfront is disgusting...would be better to employ a debt colletion agency, at least they might successfully collect the money...and definitely don't think that this is something that public generally are aware of.

Also, I wonder if the CSA will cease to exist, will those with existing cases be charged to tranfer to the 'new' agency??

Honestly?

I am GOBSMACKED. I started this thread banging on about one thing, but after a little research I found THIS HORROR happening.

We've got to do something.

Can you imagine a single mum with a couple of children, on benefits trying to scrape together £50.00 to chase the father for the FUCKING MONEY HE SHOULD BE PAYING ANYWAY?

So bad. This is so so bad.

I will support you!

I don't like the idea of being penalised for having to use the csa, and being charged.

I also don't see why the csa can't access the inland revenue for those of us that have self employed exh's who avoid paying what the children should be entitled to.

Please pm me when you get the link to the epetition.

I will sign the petition too.
Ex and i have been living apart for 4 years (he had an affair) and he has given me no money at all. I went to CSA but he is self employed and his business runs at a loss apparantly....thats strange cos he has weekends away regularly with OW, has had hundreds of £'s worth of tattoos lately, he has a brand new work van and she has a brand new car and they are forever spending money on latest clothes but he has no money so cant possibly pay me anything.
Luckily my kids are older so i am able to work fulltime so we manage but i dont think thats the point, why should i struggle to pay for everything, i am not their only parent.

Blog Post

A twitterers out there? Please tweet about this bloody nightmarish piece of crap.

I have had no maintenance in 14 years for my son. It has been to court several times and the back pay runs into thousands. They are yet to take his licence although have now agreed the baliffs are probably in order!! The dear woman I dealt with has now retired its been that long. They are useless. I am in favour of a more American system. Make it impossible to not pay maintenance!!

Mediation? With my Ex-H? HA! Tried it once - He refused to go if he couldn't bring OW, I refused to attend if he DID bring OW after the first session. Long story, has been explained in other threads - but if that happened and Ex-H refused to go to mediation on his own - would I then be financially penalised by having to PAY for the CSA? Nah, fuck that!

Count me in. Is bloody ridiculous that people can have a child and then just feck off expecting someone else to pay for the upbringing of that child - usually the RP.

I would support payments direct from wages, with the NRP paying an agency fees, NOT the RP. I would also support other sanctions like the USA have like withdrawing driving licences and criminal charges.

Normally I'm a wishy-washy liberal type but this is just wrong and if NRPs won't pay up they should be made to and there should be serious sanctions for those who do not.

House seizures

This article dates back to 2010. It's interesting indeed the very SMALL number (340) of orders of this type were being pursued compared to the number of defaulters.

Thanks for doing this thread Shirley and to Firefly for starting the petition. I for one will sign when it's live and will support in any way, shape or form that I can. I beg urge Mumsnet to pick up on this and run with it.

I was on the other thread linked to in the OP and you can read my details on there, but in a nutshell my DS is 5.5, my ex has never bothered seeing him (his own choice) and is totally non-compliant. He currently pays £12.50 per fortnight child support and only pays that because he was taken to court and ordered to pay it with threat of imprisonment if he didn't. That amount doesn't even cover the cost of school dinners, ffs.

Having spent the week chasing the CSA (no exaggeration - I've called them every day this week, sometimes twice daily, at my own cost to their 0845 number), I've just been told that they have spoken to my ex and he is refusing to pay the full amount my son is entitled to (just over £150pm). Unless the CSA can find his employer (ex left the employer they know about in 2009), then I'll continue to only receive the £25pm I currently get. If they find his employer and get a DEO (Deduction of Earnings Order) in place, there's a high chance he'll leave his job so he doesn't have to pay. If they can't find his employer, the case will be sent to their Enforcement Dept to try to obtain the child support but it's a lengthy process, and there's no guarantee of success.

The whole system is completely fucked useless.

For me, and many others, it won't be worth reapplying if I have to pay to do so. I posted on these changes back in January (under my previous MN name). There were so many awful stories on that thread from parents who wouldn't be able to afford to pay the reapplication charge, or for whom there would be no point as they only get a tiny amount of child support and this would be reduced even further by the ongoing fee they are planning to introduce.

That all said, I'm not sure that 'Challenge the proposed CSA changes' is the right title for the thread. Unless things have changed, the consultation period on the proposed charges ended back in April. However, I believe a campaign to change the overall attitude towards non-compliant parents (who are mainly fathers), and single parents (who are mainly mothers), has the potential to be very successful. Single parents in the main are vilified in the media and by the government. Yet we are the ones who bring up the children, often in very difficult circumstances, while the errant parent pays little or nothing towards their upbringing - and very little is ever said about that in the media . The non-compliant, so-called feckless fathers (and the odd mother, of course) are the ones who should be vilified. The whole sorry farce makes me sick.

Anyway, I'll come back to this thread later on because it's my day off work today, so I'm doing the school run shortly, then taking DS to his school's Christmas Fayre (which will no doubt cost me money I don't have), before coming home to make a shepherd's pie, read with him, bath him, give him a pre-bed cuddle on the sofa, and put him to bed. His 'dad', meanwhile, is nowhere to be seen and neither is his so-called child support.

Ok everyone - the e petition has been published!! Please check it out and sign if you agree, also re-post the link in other areas/facebook or wherever you think it might be of interest!! Thanks :)

epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/24749

I am new to mumsnet and don't know how to reach the widest audience for the most exposure!
Just in case people missed it - I asked Ed Miliband to answer if he thought CSA payments should be collected in the same way as student loans. For example, when I get a new job I do not have to inform anyone and automatically my student loan gets deducted. The CSA however seem to have to do some sort of cat and mouse chasing game which can go on for months. I am sure that CSA could be automatically deducted as soon as an absent parent pays income tax!!

Oh crikey, sorry to keep posting but I just read back over the thread and have just seen that CSA are going to be charging claimants!! Shirleyknot you are right this is very bad!!!!!

Thanks for the epetition I will add my name.

Is someone going to link this in Chat, legal, finances and lone parents for a wider audience?

Did you all hear about the new Banning Eastenders actor, who is a csa dodger?

Is it definate now, or is it still a proposal? I am quite disappointed as I joned the Gingerbread epetition last year regarding this issue. I still want to know what evidence they need regarding domestic abuse, do you have to have been hit, have a police record, gp record or what?