Support agency facing axe

January 26, 2005

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THE Child Support Agency faced a call for it to be axed last night - after suffering 12 years of complaint and censure.

A committee of MPs suggested the agency be scrapped unless it improved its performance over the next few weeks.

The CSA was set up by Margaret Thatcher as one of her last acts as Prime Minister in 1990, but it did not come into force until 1993.

It was designed to assess child maintenance and enforce collection from absent parents, replacing the court system which was becoming increasingly overloaded.

The agency is pursuing outstanding payments of more than '720m, while a further '947m has been designated "unrecoverable".

Disappointed

Last year its chief executive, Doug Smith, resigned admitting that he was "seriously disappointed" with its performance.

The CSA has faced persistent criticism for its failure to enforce payments and there have been repeated calls from MPs and frustrated parents for the agency to be scrapped.

In November 2003 the government apologised to parents over problems with a new computer system which plunged child maintenance payments into chaos.

In 1998 a report from the National Audit Office showed that a quarter of all CSA estimates were wrong and the errors cost children '15.8m a year in missed contributions from absent parents.

The CSA has also been dogged by numerous stories of mistakes and inefficiency.

In July 1996 Yvonne Entwhistle, from Essex, was paid '20,000 damages by the agency after it accused her husband of fathering a child by another woman.

Should the CSA be scrapped? Have your say.

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joe cavilla, moston (26/01/2005 at 13:09)

absolutely scrap this shoddy,unorganised rabble!!!!! i have been "assessed" by the csa for the last 3 yrs, it took them over a yr to return my assesment then had the cheek to charge me for arrears that had built up in that time!!! i have never had the misfortune to deal with such a shower in all my life. scrap them and employ a cartload of monkeys, they will get the job done quicker and a more efficiently!!! ps justice for fathers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! regards joe

Barbara O'Sullivan, Essex (26/01/2005 at 13:09)

After reading about the CSA this was set up in design for absent parents, my hisband has two children by two other women and he plays a very active roll as a parent with one of the children, but the other he is only allow by the mother to see his son 2 days a month even though the courts decided on different arrangements, personally i feel that both of the women only contact my husband when they require money but always say that they have the best interest of the child at heart, i beg to differ, me and my husband try to involve both children in our lifes but fine this very difficult when we are told by the mothers that if you don't give me more money you want be getting clothes or seeing your child this weekend!!

Mr Parry, llantrisant, s. wales (26/01/2005 at 13:33)

What about fathers who have to pay way to much to ex wives, I pay the full amount on time every month and have had to sell my house and move back with my mother because I was paying so much to the csa. I am destined not to have my own place so that my ex wife can have 2 cars a nice house with her new man and lots of holidays, its not just children and mothers who lose out its fathers as well. The fathers who pay cant afford to start new familys, why arent my ex wife and her new mans incomings taken into account what is going on, why are the csa persecuting fathers.

(26/01/2005 at 16:01)

All these comment are so true. My partner has been paying CSA for the past eight years or so, since the split up with it ex wife. Although the children actually lived at our house for 4 days out of seven the CSA would not take this into account as it was not on the court order. In June this year, the children came to live with us full time, so naturally I got him to phone the CSA and inform them, so he could stop making the payments. Still to this day (yes 7 months on) he is paying full wack for child maintenance, yes that's right for the children to live with us and who's mother never actually see's (her choice not ours). Is it fair that he shold have to pay child maintenance (which I beleive his ex-wife is still receiving) even though the kids live with us and their mother plays now part in their upbringing. They want to pull their finger out adn stio nessung people around.

Anon, sTRETFORD (26/01/2005 at 17:01)

I have struggled for countless years as my ex husband bounces from job to job, and each time i have to chase and find him, the CSA are unwilling, to date he owes me thousands of unpaid support, what will happen to this if the CSA is scrapped? I'm a working single parent and i don't smoke or drink, we as a family haven't been on holiday for years.. i only just pay my bills each month! How can this country let this happen to peolpe like myself, The government is failing us all.

Tony, Higher Blackley (27/01/2005 at 10:32)

I too was assessed by the CSA Feb 2003. I was put on the old system, as the CSA was keen to make me pay from day 1. I pay in full the money taken directly out of my pay. The old system is more unfair than the new system which pays a set percentage of your wage per child. I was forced to pay arrears because my ex wife told the CSA she had recieved nothing from me even though I paid her 6 months rent in advance as she asked from me for her and our kids from Dec 2001 to June 2002 + B#1000 spending on the kids over Xmas 2001. That was B#4720. The CSA believed my ex wife. My word against hers. It is quite obvious who's side they took. I have to prove I paid her the money, which I cannot do. So in effect the arrears is paying her TWICE! I lost my home, kids & job through stress to her greed in the divorce. I found it difficult to re start my life as I had literely nothing. Thankfully my parents gave me a roof for a short while. Eventually I found a place to live. The CSA though do not consider fathers have to pay for furniture all over again as the mothers have everything. The CSA even have a figure decided on how much I pay for utilitiy bills. The CSA should be closed and a new system in force to assist fathers often the losers in divorce many like me through no fault of their own.

Richard, Aberdeen Scotland (28/01/2005 at 11:13)

Total garbage scrap the lot, having just been reassessed as 1 of my children had left school in 2004 and took up full time work, I find out that my assessment has risen B#70 per month, something i can not understand.
I initally approached the CSA after my Ex wife got extremly greedy, and wanted everything.
Why does the finger always point at the man being at fault when just as many women do the same, the system was put there for the rights and welfare of the children, but from view it seems to be a way of persucuting the abscent parent and putting them on the breadline in some cases whilst allowing the other parent to have a high standard

Alison Bowen, Congleton, Cheshire. (28/01/2005 at 20:33)

Child Support Agency is corrupt. It might benefit some middle class children but for a mother on benefits it seems more than 80% of the money from the father goes back to goverment. Typical Thatcherite inhumanity. Therefore, audacious, arrogant misleading and plain incorrect to call itself a "Child Support Agency". Annoying the rich, victimising and traumatising lower income parents. The usual. Rearranging the rich, keeping the poor, poorer. Largely, useless. Possibly, putting the wrong group in the same bag. Naive, illthoughtout and uninspired administration.

Nigel Taylor, Bradford, West Yorkshire (02/02/2005 at 08:53)

Comments that have been made over the last few days, just shows that the CSA is a total `farse`!!!!
I have been `hounded` for the last three years because my ex-partner `fabricated` a `pack of lies` regarding payments made to her. it seems that the CSA is `blinkered` in its views, and for myself that has pleaded to them to assess me `fairly` does not `wash`. This resulted in me having a `breakdown` losing my house, my job, but most of all my dignity!!
Its amazing that i have to pay eighty pounds a week to my child i cannot see, but yet i was expected to live on fifty five pounds per week and still carry on paying the `debts` of my ex-partner!!!!!!

NICK, ACCRINGTON (09/02/2005 at 19:40)

SHUT IT DOWN NOW! Do these people who work for the CSA not know what they are doing to the average person in the public sector? I could'nt do that job even if my ex wife paid me to. It's a joke. Thatcher? i might have known!!!

Tim Clements, North Wales (16/02/2005 at 15:54)

Having scoured the other comments in this section I too call for this system to be scrapped.. Having been involved with the CSA for some 8 years now I can report nothing but hardship from them they totally hindering all contact between myself and my ex regarding the children. It does not take the Parent deemed to be with care to realise that it is in their interests to up the anti and become greedy with a view to securing as much financial support as possible - this in my case to the detriment of any contact I have with my children and I am sure this is the case with so many.
To add insult to injury My new wife has 2 children from a previous relationship however gets scant maintenance from their father in that he is self employed and able to write his own paycheque..

It is apparent that this agency has been set up amoungst much bluff with the intended targets left alone as to 'hard to trace' and the bank paid generally public sector parents easily contactable and assessed and despite the ease with the contact so many mistakes are made by the complicated and farcical system in place...

there is a need for a personal system to be implemented that takes into account the whole picture and emotional issues of the children first and then the financial package to follow..

Get rid of the computer system now... 'back to basics' is required here..

Tim Clem

doreen, scotland glasgow (27/02/2005 at 23:04)

i have been getting child support money for over a year with no problems to scrap it now would be a great loss it might come late but i still get it keep it going

Anonymous, Abroad (26/03/2005 at 01:10)

I unfortunately live abroad due to an assesment made by the CSA under the old scheme, which was way higher than I could afford. 500 pounds a month. I wish to contribute to the upkeep of my child and would pay a fair ammount or as much as I could afford. Now unfortunately my child gets no benefit from me due to the CSA NOT being "REASONABLE".I know I am not alone in this situation, on a daily basis I have met other fathers that have moved abroad and had to drag new families with them, due to the csa not taking into account all thier circumstances. Not every case is the same and cannot be judged so. When will the CSA start paying compensation for the misery they are causing people. I can not wait for the agency to collapse so I can return home to try and start rebuilding my life.

anon, abroad (14/04/2005 at 22:55)

My husband and i and our young child moved abroad to get away from the wrath of the csa; with mounting debt aquired from arreas taken directly from our income there was no way out. Like dominoes it had a knock-on effect. To give this amount of money meantmy own child msse out If i go out to work to make up for loss of income it will come into consideration by the csa! I can't work to benefit my own child because the system. The ex wife comes out on top and enjoyed holidays and even got left the house! Which has now been sold for profit! We had no disposable income - just debt.

Anon, Windsor (19/04/2005 at 23:56)

I wish people would stop blaming Thatcher - the current government have had 8 years to improve the system!!

The CSA let my ex run up arrears of B#35,000 before he went to court. He has since breached the court agreement (which gave him 15 yrs to pay the arrears) so the whole process starts again - what a nonsense.

The sooner we are allowed to go to courts or it is linked to the Inland Revenue for self-employed, the better. The CSA is unaccountable, incompetent, ineffective and needs to be scrapped.

nigel white, harlow essex england (27/04/2005 at 21:12)

i think the c.s.a should be scrapped !
my son is 11 years old and lives in Australia with his mother . As the father I have no rights to his medical records, i have no rights to his birth certificate, I have no right in having him on my passport. I have limeted contact and when i fly 14,000 miles to see him The answer phone is on , The injunction is made and by the time I get it all overturned in court its time to come home and who is waiting for me when i get of the plain the C.S.A ,I am about to loose my house because of them ,and not to mention the several jobs due to taking time of work to go to court.Well I have news for the justice ,Iv had enough!!! they can have my house and all my belongings and if they want they can lock me up and when I come out of jail they can house me and the social can look after me . The C.S.A hurt not just fathers , they hurt mothers to . they are yet another way of making money out of broken famillys.

Anon, Loughborough (22/05/2005 at 23:10)

I cannot believe the CSA is still going!! My ex had my child when I was only 19, she split up and her and her family moved away so I could not find them. She never let me know when she was born and she has never let me see her. One day a CSA letter landed on my doorstep accusing me of being the father, even though she had slept with at least 3 other guys at the time (Hence why we split up). I contested obviously and was told I had to prove I wasn;t and had to pay B#350 for that privallege, or start coughing up. I paid and it was proved she was mine. Fine, I tried but again was not allowed anywhere near her. The CSA started taking B#450 per month!! What child needs that kind of money? I had several defaults, went over 30K in arrears, and had to quit my job as my outgoings were higher than my income!! When I explained this to the CSA, there answer was, then you will have to make yourself bankrupt!! Nothing like compasion as they ruin a mans life is there?!? I am now 28 and still have B#12k to pay off from the debts they caused those many years ago!! I since had another daughter, with another ex. I pay her B#110 volutarily, have her every other weekend, take her away on hols etc, and have a very loving relationship with her. So who's to blame, me the willing father, nope, more like the family destroying, father financially crippling CSA!!! Not many mothers out there are very caring to the fathers for whatever reason. I understand some fathers can be unfit, but so can some mothers! But the law will always side with the mother! Fathers for Justice!! My daughter would have a much better life, if she was here living with me - she even asks for it, I just can't do it because the law is on the mothers side.

anon, coalville (25/05/2005 at 22:52)

the csa have been in our familys pocket for 4 years now bleeding us dry.
making my children go without whilst they line my husbands ex wifes pockets.yes i do agree that the csa should be scrapped

Maxine, Stockport (15/02/2006 at 13:41)

Child support has nothing to do with their relationship with the mother, whether she is a gold digger or not, or how many times they see the child. I know, my ex-husband has never acknowledged my teenage son's existence let alone pay me any child support. Parents stop acting like half wits and get paying for the upkeep of you children!

anne, derby (24/02/2006 at 09:42)

my partners ex is takeing us for what she can. i have 2 children of my own plus weve had our own two yet our payments have not changed

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