CSA fees

[sprachrohr]

It is outrageous that the government wants parents, in particular the resident parent to pay a fee for maintenance payment. They truely live in a bubble of inherited money and never had to face true hardship caused by a spouse who dicides to learn the family and bring the children to the brink of homelessness and poverty. When a parent decides to leave the family they often have lost any sense of reason and cannot be reasoned with! That's when a mother -in most cases it is the mother who stays behind- is left to struggle on behalf of the children.
Why does the Government not make it a rule that middle management in all these public sector places has to be cut by 80%.Rather than leaving it to the individual companies to decide. As we can see -it is always the normal population that will suffer but not the decision makers. But this new plan in my view is a step too far.
It is adding insult to injury and proves yet again that the government does not know how real people ( professional middle class)have to make ends meet. And the children will have to suffer by not having enough money to go round and by having an extremely stressed resident parent.

Well done for starting this thread sprachrohr, I saw the news item on BBC this morning and my jaw hasnt lifted from the floor yet! I think your point about them being totally ignorant of the suffering of lone parents is truly illustrated by this mad proposal. However, it doesnt surprise me as this society does still appear to punish women first and foremost, specifically working class women as obviously the idea has come from studying how well the affluent deal with maintenance payments - all very civilised when there is plenty in the bank and legal costs to avoid?

I was married for 24 years when ex decided to up and leave and within 1 year he had given up his well paid job and ceased any payments. Left with 3 children I had to go through the CSA as any chance of a nice voluntary middle class agreement was impossible with someone who decided he didnt want to see his children anymore and would rather court the bottle. They ordered that he pay £30 per month for all three, yes just £30, not each! When I asked them if that was correct, they said "If you know that his circumstances have changed, let us know". Well are they not the ones with access to records for tax etc?! My own investigation of the electoral register show that he resides with 3 other adults so he isnt paying living costs solo but of course that isnt taken into account unlike my knicker draw being privy to inspection!
Should single mums/parents now have to pay private investigators to do the work of chasing errant fathers? Perhaps we can also hire Vinnie Jones type heavies to encourage regular payments?

Im not an expert but why dont we adopt the Australian model where women are paid the maintenance by the goverment then the goverment pursues the father through the tax system for the money that he owes them? I have no desire to contact a man who is an alcoholic, who abandoned his children without care and who during the time that I did have contact with was cruel and abusive.

This goverment is either truly naive or incredibly callous and cruel and what frightens me most is that I believe the latter to be true.

Join the campaign to stop this madness......

www.gingerbread.org.uk/content.aspx?CategoryID=568

Join the campaign to stop this madness....

www.gingerbread.org.uk/content.aspx?CategoryID=568

I must admit, I am a natural Tory voter and this is perhaps the most idiotic proposal I've heard to date.

we can thank the likes of Iain duncan smith for this. be it on his conscience while everyday people suffer and go without and when the government are literally robbing children, the rich get richer-accepting their multi million pounds worth of shares and avoiding paying millions of pounds worth of tax etc etc etc.

there is only one reason for this and it is nothing to do with deficit. it is because of their own warped, ill-informed and regressive, backward opinions. it is truely incredulous as to how patronising this government is, how greedy it is and how offensive it is.

I started a thread on this in Lone Parents about a month ago, here. The replies included some sorry tales that reinforce the fact that these charges will be a disaster for many separated parents. The problem with an issue like this is that people are usually only concerned by it if it affects them directly. I also started the same thread in Chat and received no replies whatsoever. Maybe that's because those who wanted to respond did so in LP. Or maybe it's because those who saw it in Chat thought 'that has nothing to do with me' and, somewhat understandably, moved on. It's a shame that people don't realise that if they are part of a couple with children, they are only a step away from becoming two single parents. After all, how many single parents actually intended to become a SP? Very few I'd imagine. No-one knows what's round the corner and circumstances can change in a heartbeat.

In the same respect it's a shame that this subject hasn't had more coverage in the national media. But then in the eyes of the media, the politicians and often the general populus, single parents don't deserve to have people on their side, don't deserve to have the general population willing to fight their corner, because the politicians and the media have painted us as part of the problem - we are the enemy, and who in their right mind helps the enemy? Instead people protest about the selling off of forests and the closure of some libraries, they march against increased uni fees and cuts to disability benefits, but sod the oft abandoned single parents and their sure-to-be-delinquent offspring. They'll just have to face extra charges - at a time when they tend to be at their lowest ebb, financially and emotionally - and lump it.

It's a fucking joke.

We need to protest!! I set up an online petition today. Please sign it and tell everyon you now to sign it too!!

You can say NO to a tax on child maintenance by signing an online petition at
www.ipetitions.com/petition/taxingkids/

and so, ironically, they call it 'strengthening families' !

so by making the absent parent pay more and the parent with care recieve less money, this will somehow 'strengthen' families?

Jmum this effects me and I do see you point about us being made out to be the enemy. I've posted a link on a LP site I use and will put it on FB too. Well done on setting up the petition

www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2011/strengthening-families.shtml hope that link works?!

Oh dear, oh dear.I despair of this government, I truly do.

It would appear that they are residing in some kind of parallel universe, where the sky is always blue, the sun always shines, flowers and trees are always in bloom. The streets are paved with Big society volunteers,we all recycle ...

The reality is,not all single parents have contact with the non resident parent for a myriad of reasons.This might be due to the fact that their ex was for example physically abusive.
Therefore, the government can hardly expect said woman to sit down, and have a civilised conversation about maintenance with abusive ex can they?!

The only people who will suffer under these new proposals, are the children.