Child Support Agency

I am very concerned to read, this week in the Times, this article
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article5804200.ece

The Child Support Agency appears to be totally out of control and a law unto itself. Much has been written about its gross inefficiency and I could go on at length about that (from personal experience), but what I want to highlight here is the dubious morality of the whole CSA concept. It is yet another example of the government devising a very rigid system to deal with a problem and then applying it across the board, whether it is appropriate or not. In most other situations there is some means of appeal for inappropriate situations but in the case of the CSA there is no appeal under any circumstances. You may appeal against the assessment if you feel the amount is not appropriate but under no conditions can you appeal against the fact that an assessment has been made in the first place.

The concept of the system is based on the observation that in many cases a man walks out on his partner leaving her with a child or children and no means of support. I don't doubt that this is what usually happens, and I have no problem with the concept that he ought to financially support his family. But consider the reverse scenario which can and does frequently happen. The woman walks out on the man, for no valid reason, and takes the children with her. The man has been seduced into fathering children on the understanding that they would all form a happy family, and then the woman leaves, either because she had no intention of forming a happy family, or because she has found a new man she prefers the look of. The man is left with a destroyed life. He has planned to form a happy family and to be a good father for the rest of his life. Now he is suddenly left with no wife, no children, no family. And to add insult to injury he is expected to pay for the priviledge.

The government, from time to time, blows its own trumpet over how they are supporting strong families and how this is good for the social stability of the country. But letting the CSA loose in the scenario above certainly does not help support those ideals ........ quite the opposite. It encourages women to get pregnant with no intention of making a proper family, or to run off with another man, knowing that they will be financially supported by the poor abandoned spouse.

Now, assuming the woman has gone off with another man and the abandoned spouse manages to find another partner with children we are left with the bizarre situation where the errant wife is being supported twice (once by her new man and once by her ex partner) and the ex partner is having to pay twice (once for his new family and once for his old family). I ask you .... is that just or fair? I understand the CSA is about to be replaced by a new body. Let's just hope that the government learns from its mistakes and puts sufficient flexibility into the system to prevent such miscarriages of justice in the future.