Are you a single parent?
If you are, and are resident parent, ie the children live with you, does your ex provide financial support for your children?
A stunning THREE out of FIVE parents are estimated not to receive financial support from the non-resident parent. Three out of five.
When I read that yesterday, on Frothers, I could hardly believe it. What on earth is wrong with our society that so many men decide that they are not responsible for the child that they have made? I don't want to sound like a tabloid newspaper hack, but where are the morals of these men?
(I accept that there may be a few cases where the feckless one is the mother, but we all know that the norm is that the mother is left with the children).
How have we reached a point where a man feels that it is acceptable to walk away from his responsibilities. That women are seen as scroungers for asking for financial assistance?
In recent years the government agency CSA (Child Support Agency) has been criticised for being, well, pretty much useless really. They are supposed to force the non-resident parent to hand over at least the statutory payments, but all too often this was not done. As in ShirleyKnot's case, where her ex-husband owes her £440 but the CSA will not initiate proceedings until the arrears reach £500, or her ex has not paid for 13 weeks.
The government announced the scrapping of the CSA earlier this year, but the system that is to replace it will make you gasp.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this powerful post, MmeL. The more you find out, the madder it gets, doesn't it? And real lives are at stake: real children, not little profit centres.
ReplyDeleteA quick reminder to people that you can use WriteToThem.com to easily find & email your MP :)
#frothers