I don’t ‘do’ politics. Mainly because normally, I misunderstand something.
But as many of my faithful readers know - I’ve had occassion several times in the last nine years to butt heads with the government over the way they handle the ‘protection’ of money belonging to, or that children are entitled to - and by extention, the absolutely nightmarish way the goverment handles relationship breakdowns, entitlements and debts to thier various departments.
This isn’t - technically - a commentary on what’s going on here at the moment (and no, my other half and I aren’t splitting up) but to give you a bit of background (for those new(er) here). In 1998, I met the father of my children. We stayed together till around 2003 - though we seperated several dozen times in between, each time, me asking him to leave.
He was responsible for most of the household bills, because I bought everything for our children out of the money I had - so in theory he was covering rent, council tax ‘etc’. He made himself unemployed, claiming it was the only way to ensure the house would be clean and safe for the kids, and then brow beat me into the same. By that point, he was then still supposed to cover the (now) council tax arrears - and ask they were all addressed to both of us, he opened them, and told me it was just letters confirming payment.
We split up, and *I* got stuck with a huge bill for close to five years of council tax bills.
Anyone see the problem with this logic? It was in both names, and yet, I’m paying it. When I challenged them about whether they’d pursue him for his half, they told me that legally they only needed to find ME.
Another example of how the less easy partner is to track is the CSA. We’re currently fighting to recieve the arrears he now owes, and we’re not alone. I saw a statistc that suggested that up to 75% of the households dealing with the CSA are waiting for them to sort out thier entitlement/reclaim arrears appropriately. Looking at the official figures is enough to terrify *most* people - despite the fact the old system was ’scrapped’ in 2003, five years on, there’s still over half of the caseload there. Looking at it from the perspective of the standard rate of increase of people using the service, this looks very bad - the average rate of processing the old cases to new is 25,000 or less per month.
AND - our case - along with thousands of are not included in these statistics, as they are deemed ‘clerical’. Which is where the majority of the complaints are believed to stem from. There ARE no accurate stats on those guys though.
Worse than this - and it does get worse - is that the CSA seems completely incapable of ‘punishing’ anyone other than the resident parent. Those with children are left waiting for payments, and in some clerical cases, responsible for phoning up and asking (nicely) for the payment that’s been sent. If this payment is on certain systems, it can take 21 WORKING days for this payment to be processed. In the interim, this money sits in a dead space of apparently not earning interest (which I believe to be a lie), and not reaching the children it’s meant for until up to a month later. That is, IF it’s not also rejected by the bank for whatever reason - and in which case the process starts again. In the meantime the standard advice is ‘if you can’t live without this money, because it’s not garunateed, then you need to go speak to the Citizens advice’ and that they are doing everything in thier power. If you press them, they claim legislation ties thier hands worse than it ties the parents with care.
Meanwhile the non resident parent can ask for a reduction in payments because of an addition to thier household (which is fair) - change thier job and do illegal things to dodge a full assessment (there’s information all over from people about how to ‘divert’ funds if you’re a self employed worker - another site advocates going to your boss with a sob story (cause, according to them, your boss probably has the same problems with ‘finance drain exes’ and will be sympathetic) and ask for it ‘under the table’.
The agency that was origionally set up to ensure that children are comfortable, safe and amply cared for to the ability of both parents, and was designed to ensure there ARE no fights or arguments over the phone about money when one parent phones to speak to another, and to basically build a more secure environment for those children fails. On more points than the press tend to report.
Taking the problems I’ve encountered as an example - not only do my children now not get any payments, but we have absolutely no recourse to deal with this. More than that though - depsite being told that yes, they know they’ve screwed up, the absolute best we’ve been offered is a deduction of earnings order that will not kick in till next month - and we are not allowed to pursue whether we’re getting the money at all, until January.
Despite the fact that he didn’t pay correct amounts of money for months, the group at the clerical division that looks after our case didn’t do a thing, which means we’re also not entitled to claim the money from the government on an advanced payment (which personally, I believe would mean that the goverment actually had a stronger reason to pursue him, and we might not see as many delays. As I’ve been told by several members of staff, it’s not thier money - so they don’t care). Our redress to all of this?
Hope he actually pays.
If he doesn’t, of course, there’s always a way to reclaim it - eventually. There are other legal actions that the CSA and other agencies won’t use until they’ve finally decided that
For families in a worse situation than ours, this is crippling. In our case, we’re missing close to £300 from our budget every month - which, at the moment, is the difference between a comfortable Christmas and a difficult one. It’s also the difference between therapy that I want to pay for (for my child as a suppliment to what she already recieves) and keeping her home. It’s the difference between eating when I’m on campus and not - because the money for THAT goes to the kids at the moment. And what annoys me the most is in asking for this money, I’ve been told that I sound like all I care about is the money, like I’m not looking out for the best interests of my children.
I had a wonderful conversation with my local MP’s assistant on Monday night who tells me this isn’t limited to where I encountered it. Substitute ‘tax credit’ for council tax above, and think of overpayments instead, and the govermnet will pursue ONE parent for it. Not both, and certainly not the one that’s now making more money if he’s not supporting the household of children.
I’d also like to highlight something else - though this does sound kinda bitter.
I’m a mother with care - I know of fathers with care that say the same thing though. Every single penny I have goes towards my children. My ex has to pay what is around the equivalent of 25% of his wage, weekly, with reductions based on individual circumstance. If I only put 25% towards the kids, after bills, they’d never get anything. Ever. And yet, when you ‘hear’ from these parents, in the press, on TV, they claim that this is too much, but that they want to do everything they can for thier children. Everything you can for your children is every single penny you earn - AND making sure that they aren’t losing out because you left the relationship with bills that you’re not taking responsibility for.
And that’s where I think legislation needs to change. It needs to be overhauled from the ground up, because in with this wonderful mix is the fact that most people are being crippled by rent/council tax/rising fuel costs/heating costs. I know what it’s like, so I’m not saying every single non resident parent is a dirtbag out there, but the law shouldn’t be on THEIR side. The law shouldn’t leave them with more than the kids have and it certainly shouldn’t leave the parent with care in a position that is not stable, secure or forever indebted to the government because agencies will not enforce owed monies appropriately.
If the government is serious about protecting the children - then it needs to start with sepearated families. Single or in new relationships - the support to ensure that the CHILDREN of previous relationships are given everything they are entitled to, whether thier new family is well off or not, is too important to overlook. We’re raising a nation of people that believe leaving a relationship means that as long as there’s no baggage, they’re free.
One of the easiest ways to ensure things like the working families tax credits and council tax scenarios don’t happen is to have BOTH parties sign for half of the liability. If one party is working and the other is not working / disabled, rate it based on income. If they’re staying as a family, it’s all getting paid anyway - and if not, it means those that are left with the care of children in these breakdowns aren’t left wondering how to meet potentially thousands of pounds of debts.
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