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?