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Hi all
My son is 11 and lives with me, has done since he was 6 months old. His mother has never paid any maintenance and when I asked she said she would never work as long as she was entitled to pay! So I just got on with life and never bothered with it.
She now has a daughter with somebody else and her daughter lives with her (aged 4). She has contacted the CSA in regards to receiving maintenance payments from her daughters father which is set at £117.00 per month, this annoyed me because she has never paid and refused to put herself in a position so she would have to pay towards the upbringing of my son.
I called the CSA and they told me I would be entitled to only £5 per week! I don't want the money whether it be £5 or £500 per week, it infuriates me that she is able to get away with this and I want to challenge the rulings in court so the question is: Who is responsible for these unfair rulings so that I can challenge them?
It's unfair that equality never seems to fall on fathers!!
Hi there,
Its an unfair system, I dont know how you would go about challenging the government department responsible. :unsure:
I think that the government has recently changed the rules that apply to single parent mothers...it used to be that they didnt have to sign on for work until their child reached the age of sixteen, now I think the age of the child has been dropped to 5 or maybe 6...Thats my understanding anyway. So it might be that your sons mother might not have much choice but to join the ranks of the employed much sooner than she thinks!
Good luck with your quest, you'll find a lot of likeminded Dads here, and the odd Nanny!!... Welcome to the Forum!
Hi
Unfortunately, there is no perfect system - the only one that possibly could be would be to assess each case separately on its own merits and review every year, and that simply is never going to be possible. What we have is a system which caters quickly for the greatest number of people with a variation system to allow some flexibility.
As nannyJane points out, your ex may have to look for work sooner than she thinks, and ultimately, in your case, it's not the CSA rules that are at fault, it's the system that allows your ex to continue claiming benefit that's the problem, plus her willingness to probably sit back on benefits rather than have the potential to better herself even after paying maintenance. I sympathise totally with your plight - I have an ex on benefits who is only paying 5 per week even though she is receiving an income from a private pension, and apparently there's nothing the CSA can do to touch that money.
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