I have had major problems with the child support agency for the past 18 years now as they failed to collect a single penny in child maintenance for out two children in fifteen years took no action to even try and get any kind of maintenance from him even though he was working. my arrears stood at over £70,000 but no action was ever taking in all this time and when my ex husband recently died at the start of this year the CSA sent me a letter stating that they now considered the case closed and was wiping the arrears.
I am now going through the same again with ny second husband who since 2002 has been avioding paying his maintanance by continuasly job hoping arond the same circle of employers and the child support agency have collected very littlke maintenance for me or taing any kind of action aganst him even though he is never out of work and is earning a verygood wage. my arrears for this case stands at £6500 and they are doing nothing to try and collect it for me.

diane lawrence, aberdeen, scotland

The csa are the most heartless outfit ever its plain to see how it fails so badly they recked my life to the extent i dont know wether i can continue with it any more there may be some bastards out there that dont care about there kids but i only just exsist for mine im not very good at explaining myself or reading and writing but i will and have paid what i can i always had quite a low income and not very consistant but class myself as a grafter there demands are so high its frighting and gatting them to understand and play ball is impossible and makes you want to run stealing from your bank account and leaving you for ever in your over draft wrecking my second marrage and now leaving me destitute homeless at 43 ruffing it and to far away to see my kids who love me so much i find myself begging and borrowing and because of my frighting dept to the csa cant or darnt have a legitamate job or place to live i lived in a caravan after my second devorce that was stolen with all my belongins

jonathan brown, nottingham, england

My ex partner is a self employed builder, he lives in a six bedroom house, has three cars, a mercedes van and a boat, he has a nil assessment ..why.... because.. according to the tribunal panal that heard my appeal ,a self employed person cannot deprive themselfs of an income, so he can tell them he has no income, he can claim no benefits, he can tell them he is working on his own house, increasing it from a three bedroom to a six bedroom and when asked why when there is only him and his partner living there , replied "because I can", he can do this for almost 4 years claiming to live off his partners income , and the tribunal say he is not depriving himself of an income, but they agree he committed tax fraud, mortgage fraud, and that he has done it all to reduce his assesible income for child support... but .. still a nil assessment....a half a million 6 bed house, lving on the sea front , boat and cars in the drive ... and not a penny for my son to support him explain that to my son,

debra wood, waterlooville, hants

The Benefit System in the UK is rigged. Many of the highest paying benefits are "passported" i.e. if you are in receipt of Income Support you automatically qualify for the other benefits like Housing Benefit paying your rent and exempting you from Council Tax. The purpose of the CSA was to save the Government money by raising the income of the Parent With Care (PWC) above Income Support thresholds. The Assesment formula has been mathematically analysed. It takes around 60% of the Absent Parents income no matter what. It does not leave the Absent Parent with enough to live on. On paper the Government gives the PWC extra money but in reality withdraws other benefits. Further they never ever targeted the real non payers. They went for the soft targets those already paying and simply increased the payments using the formula. Not a penny was spent on tracing absent parents just hounding, sometimes to death, those who were already paying!

Nicholas Kulkarni, Norfolk, England

Apart from the fact that they mislaid the money they deducted from my salary just about every month, so my ex had to phone them up and chase them just about every month before she got it, I'm paying about twice what I should be because I should by now be paying under the new assessment calculations. The reason I'm not is because the CSA can't get their computer working properly.

It's said that the CSA's replacement will have teeth. The CSA has plenty of teeth - what it lacks is a brain.

Chris, Lichfield,

The MPs do not understand that the CSA fails because it is an unfair system. Even worse, it actually harms children by helping to drive a wedge between their parents. If two parents have equal shared care, why should one parent give the other some of their income? Why is this money more likely to benefit the child with one parent than the other? Until they come up with a system that aims to benefit children - rather than just punish non-resident parents - we will get nowhere. Take a look at the Equal Parenting Alliance website for one such plan.

steve gouldstone, manchester, UK

It was a bad law when created and, although fiddled with over the years, its failings were never addressed. The idea was sound, but the process complex. No two separations or divorces are the same and the Act treated them as if they were, which gave parents, usually the absent ones, the feeling of being severly punished for an occurance which might not have been caused by them. The CSA staff had to deal with the anger of both parties and as a result lost morale. The CSA was target driven so attacked the easier targets who were those who had court settlements.
Both parents lost faith in the CSA, and nothing in its design actually assited the children.
As a bad law it received no cooperation, much vituperation and was bound to fail.

John, Worcester,

I have shared responsibility and residence of my children.
My Ex and I have them for a week every other week with no maintenance payments either way.
We both have full time jobs,If like what has happened lately, she decides she wants more money for herself she can get it through CMEC. because I am the man
It a fundemental mistake to start this in the same illconcieved manner as the CSA

Fraser, Burnham, Bucks

I've never missed a payment over 5 years. I have notified them of any changes in circumstances within a week of finding out myself each time. Yet I am officially over £600 in arrears due to incompetent delays in administration at the CSA. How much of the arrears that they quote is due to delays/mistakes at the CSA itelf?

Sean, Bristol, UK

I have suffered at the hands of the faceless individuals of the CSA for over 10 years. In that time my numerous complaints haev gone unaswered, despite my payment history. I have complied with all their requests adn reviews yet due to changing government policies have been harrased, threatened with balifs and had attachment of earnings orders simply as I dared to ask for justification when unknown charges were notified to me. It was accepted by a department of the CSA that for the last 4 years I have been overpaying maintenace to the tune of £150 per month, but such sum would not be reduced as my ex-wife, note not my child, would suffer hardship. In the early days I was paying maintenance by agreement, until my wife's solicitor advised her to sever contact with my daughter and make an application to the CSA as she would get more money that way. I think words I would use to describe the CSA would be, useless, uncaring, prejudiced unaccountable faceless burocrats.

Chris Hutchinson, Dewsbury, West Yorkhsire

The current CSA, nor CMEC can ever work!!!
It only takes money from father's who care for their children and who already look after and provide for their children.

The money that is collected, where does it go? It's not used for child support, it's used to cover-up the incompetence of the benefits agency who put women on benefit for year on year on year!

Just look at what's going on, putting father's in prison who have their children 50% of the time and who spend thousands of pounds on them. Do they really think that putting a father in prison make him will make him earn more?

And, these billions outstanding, most is completely ficticious, made up amounts by the CSA so that they can pretend they're performing.
Remember it's the Government that decided that fathers not married to their children's mother have NO RESPONSIBILTY for the children. And, it's the Courts that continue to enforce this denying fathers contact with their children. No Contact means No Maintenance!

Peter Anderson, Bracknell, Berks

The government is getting it completely wrong again. It's in children's best interest to be looked after by both parents after separation. "Non resident" parents who are involved in children's lives support them financially too. The objective of the government should be that both parents share the care and the costs, not that one pays the other.

Instead, the widely accepted model became: first the unaccountable Family Law and benefit systems help removing one parent from the child's life, making him or her "absent". Then CSA or C-MEC wages a war against that parent and destroys him (or occasionally her) financially.

Where are the enforceable measures making both parents share their children's care?!

L Yanovic, Reading, UK

The government is getting it completely wrong again. It's in children's best interest to be looked after by both parents after separation. "Non resident" parents who are involved in children's lives support them financially too. The objective of the government should be that both parents share the care and the costs, not that one pays the other.

Instead, the widely accepted model became: first the unaccountable Family Law and benefit systems help removing one parent from the child's life, making him "absent". Then CSA / C-MEC wages a war against that parent and destroys him (and occasionally her) financially.

Where are the enforceable measures making both parents share their children's care?!

L Yanovic, Reading, UK

The CSA said that my ex partner didn't have to pay maintenance for our son as he only earned £100 per week - despite buying his own house and driving around in a BMW. They are absolutely stuipid if they believe that sort of rubbish. It's about time child maintenance was put under the Inland Revenue umbrella.

J. Burdett, Leicester,

I am a mother, who has a shared care arrangement with my ex-husband. He conned the child benefit allowance from me and went onto claim child maintenance (which I had never done whilst in receipt of the child benefit). Unfortunately people like me are an easy target for the CSA because I can't hide, as I have a full time job in local government. The CSA are a disgrace, who I believe, are far from impartial in making decisions. I now, not only pay for my child when he's in my care but am now paying my ex-husband to look after my child.

R. Watson, York,

You only ever hear about the ones that don't pay but nothing is ever said about the ones that do pay and end up paying more than they should and when it is pointed out that a misstake has been made the road to getting any of the over payed money back is a long and twisted one

Errol Malcolm, Birmingham,