The CSA: The Child Support Agency.

The CSA is an arm of the Dept of Work and Pensions (DWP). Speaking plainly, after your children have been legally kidnapped (OK, let’s admit it, this is what it is), they will be held to continual legal ransom insomuch as you will have to pay your ex a fixed fee, called Child Maintenance (many fathers just refer to "Extortion"). This fixed fee is meant for the childs upkeep, although it is unclear to me how paying your ex’s mortgage or funding her shopping or boozing habits helps the children. Child Maintenance is often paid through the CSA and their rules include that a woman can claim Child Maintenance even when she is looking after the child less than half the time, or even if she never looks after the child!

Certainly it is ludicrous that the money you will be forced to pay her may well be used by her to put your children into day care, when they would have been better off with you, and you could have better used that money to do something good with them. Always remember:

• You are paying your ex, not your children; there is no evidence at all that children actually benefit from Child Maintenance payments and indeed the CSA will in no way force the children’s mother to use your money to provide for the children.
• You are paying to have your children removed from you; your paying Child Maintenance in no way improves your contact with your children. Quite the opposite, women are positively rewarded for being obstructive in that the more your ex can reduce contact with you, the more money she will get. Many women threaten the father with calling 999 if they try to establish contact, thus reducing contact to almost nothing and consequently benefitting by thousands of pounds in extra Child Maintenance payments.
• There are a number of studies published about Child Poverty and they show that by far the best way of combating Child Poverty is to encourage the mother to work. Despite many studies, paying Child Maintenance has never been linked to alleviating Child Poverty, indeed Child Maintenance and other Maintenance payments encourage women not to work.
• Child Maintenance and other payments, however, leave fathers in a new and harsh economic reality involving at the very least a significant reduction in their lifestyle. Statistics show that divorced dads have a standard of living only slightly above that of the unemployed. Often divorced dads simply do not have enough money to live on.

You should be aware that previously in the divorce process you could argue than the man needs at least some money to provide for the children during the time they spend with him, but you can't use that agruement with the CSA – they really can take everything away from you. The CSA does not have to take your commitments (mortgage etc) into account so you may well be reduced to homelessness! It is very hard to find out what your rights are as the main organization touted around as impartial advisor; Child Maintenance Options (“we provide impartial information and support to help both parents make informed choices about child maintenance”) also belongs to the DWP and strictly toes the official line.

The CSA is an extremely confrontational organization. Its web site boasts of how it goes to extremes to persecute men. No cases against women are illustrated, nor does the CSA publish any stories about how the CSA is responsive to the needs of their clients. Even men who are conscientiously paying but move house are liable for a £1.000 fine if they don’t inform the CSA of their new address within 7 days. The CSA boasts that to trace men and establish their address it uses mobile phone providers, credit agencies, building societies and its agents apparently even sink so low as to question newspaper boys!

Over and above 70,000 Deduction from Earnings Orders, the CSA say they issue 12.000 Liability Orders per annum; these give them the power to arrest you. Furthermore they then have the power to order bailiffs to take your possessions, to freeze your assets (including stocks, shares and trust funds) and to take money from your accounts. Should this not suffice they have the power to disqualify you from driving (what has that to do with Child Maintenance?), sell your house without your consent and even send you to prison for up to 42 days.

• over 74,000 new deduction from earnings orders were sent to employers to take money from a non-resident parent's earnings or pension
• over 18,000 liability orders were granted, and
• over 500 non-resident parents received immediate or suspended sentences.
• over 1,500 County Court Judgement Orders
• almost 2,000 Third-party Debt Orders, and
• almost 2,000 Charging Orders.

Have you been through a divorce? Contribute your tips on the discussion board Contribute here So that others may benefit.