Child Support Agency.

[CHUCKY]

Since there is alot of talk on this in the news today, I was wondering what evreyones thoughts were on this farce.

I am owed thousands and my ex-partner still see his children every week (as the children would suffer if not), but my ex-partner is pretty good at job hopping so every time they catch up with him he goes and gets another job.

My present partner pays alot of maintenance for his children without a fuss, as well as spending lots of money on them as well (not grudged), but yet he still gets earache from his ex for more money.

The whole system seems to be failing a large number of people and I cant understand how this has been allowed to happen.

[_Ju_]

Chucky, my heart goes out to you. I understand where you are coming from and its so wrong what is happening. Not that I need to point it out to you, but the difference between your ex and current partner is that one is a father and the other is not.
What I don't understand is that internal revenue makes sure it gets all the money owed to it by tax payers..... they know, or are supposed to know just about everything about any tax payers financial situation, so why isn't that information used???

[CHUCKY]

Thankyou Ju.

They have told me before that they had put a tax tracer on him, so they would know who his employers were everytime he changed employer, but it never materialised. What gets me so much is the fact he drags out each maintenance assessment for 6 months+, he then gets loads of warning letters and just before they go into his wage,he jumps ship.

You would have thought with a reputation like this, the CSA would automatically go into his wages as soon as he starts employment again to try and regain some of his arrears. But no the whole process has to start again.

At least I am one of the lucky ones who still has enough for a decent standard of living, although if I was a single parent it would be a different story. There are alot of single parents male and female struggling to cope because of the CSA, and then you have the absent parents who have to pay a fortune in maintenance and are not even allowed access to their children. The whole system is a mess in my opinion.

Rant over.

[2little2late]

The CSA is a total farce. My wife is owed over £1000 from her ex partner and hasn't had a penny from him in over 18 months. Their son now lives with the father and he has the cheek to try and get CSA from my wife.

The minimum payment is supposed to be £5.00 per week, even if the absent parent is unemployed, yet my wife's ex partner only had to pay less than £2.00 a week towards his daughter's upkeep. Doesn't make sense. He is now telling the CSA he is unemployed, which we know fine he isn't. Which begs the question, "Why isn't my wife even receiving the minimum payment then?".

There was nothing wrong with arranging payments via the local courts. At least if you didn't pay you knew you would be in trouble.
No wonder some ex partners make voluntary payments instead of having all the hassle with the CSA.

Can't even phone them to speak to them because you always get cut off. Last time I phoned on behalf of my wife, because she no longer wishes to speak to them, firstly I got cut off then when I phoned back and explained i was speaking on behalf of my wife they asked for her date of birth, which I gave there was a lot of umming and ahhing on the other end of the phone. Cut off again, phoned back and when I finnaly managed to get some sense out of them, I asked when my wife was due to get a payment I was told a standing order had been sent to ex husband and they hadn't yet received it, so they would send him another out. Still haven't heard anything.

Then they have the cheek to send a standing order to my wife for payments to be made to her ex husband.
Guess what? We haven't filled it in and they aren't going to get a penny from my wife. Her ex owes her over a grand, so the CSA can deduct his payments from what he owes ny wife.

The sooner the CSA is closed the better.

[CHUCKY]

2little2late I have been there when the absent parent is on benefits, and the CSA tried to deduct £5 per week from his benefits. The benefits agency refused their request and I have never been told why, this has happened on 3 seperate occasions over the last 6 years.

[Rheghead]

The CSA was swept in by a Tory government with rapturous applause, very shortly afterwards it transpired that it wasn't gonna tackle the very people that it got popular support to tackle, ie absent Fathers that didn't pay a penny. Instead they targetted the easy option, the fathers that were paying something but not the amount that came up to their criteria. At this time the real crooks were getting away with not paying. Since then, I have no credibility for the idiots in grey suits.

[rainbow]

You cannot close the CSA - what it needs is a radical overhaul, and be seen to be working to get the general publics confidence in the agency.
The original problems started by centralising the agency - closing the local offices, where you could go to try to resolve the matter. Then they introduced a computer system that would not work - despite paying £460million, and the staff saying it will not work and they are not ready for it, the MP's said you will be ready - so they should be made accountable for the cock-ups made.
I have friends who are banging their heads against walls, in pure frustration at not getting maintenance. They are bringing up the kids on their own, while the father wines and dines and holidays - the CSA should be naming and shaming them publicly.

[CHUCKY]

They are bringing up the kids on their own, while the father wines and dines and holidays - the CSA should be naming and shaming them publicly.

Great Idea.

[Chillie]

You cannot close the CSA - what it needs is a radical overhaul, and be seen to be working to get the general publics confidence in the agency.
The original problems started by centralising the agency - closing the local offices, where you could go to try to resolve the matter. Then they introduced a computer system that would not work - despite paying £460million, and the staff saying it will not work and they are not ready for it, the MP's said you will be ready - so they should be made accountable for the cock-ups made.
I have friends who are banging their heads against walls, in pure frustration at not getting maintenance. They are bringing up the kids on their own, while the father wines and dines and holidays - the CSA should be naming and shaming them publicly.

From your post with all your details in it, I take it you have worked in the CSA, or still working there and maybe you might be one of these so called government satastics.

[JAWS]

The CSA was set up using a lot of bluff and bluster and falls under the heading of "It seemed a good idea at the time!"
It was a good attempt at being a "Vote Catcher" and very little else. It has never worked from day one,

It was supposed to solve the problems of all single parents and in that it has been a spectacular failure.
Last year the part of the CSA which is supposed to collect outstanding money cost more to run than it managed to collect.
At the moment there is three billion pounds outstanding and no likelyhood of the CSA ever obtaining any of it.

Just how useless the system is for collecting and distributing money can be seen by the fact that the Government wants to move the debt from it's books and dump them on Debt Collection Agencies.
Making sure the money was obtained from the absent parent was the exact reason the CSA was created.
Doing that also convenienly makes three billion pounds of Government Debt disappear at a stroke! (I suspect that is the main consideration and not the single parents at all)

The questions which cry out for answers are:-
Are single parents better provided for than they were prior to the CSA being created?
Are absent parents being traced and payments obtained any more efficiently than prior to the CSA?
Has the CSA made it simpler for single parents to get a decision on the amount which they should get than it was before the CSA was created?

If the answer to the above questions is "No" then there needs to be a complete rethink and a new and workable system created. The CSA should then be given a decent burial because all it is at present is the old system of Court Orders with a Government Department dumped into the middle of it as an added obstacle.