057f3528_1997_articles__s__not_necessarily_contiguous_
[Date & reference] 1997-03-31 This Is Lancashire CSA a miserable failure
THE Child Support Agency was established, quite rightly, to ensure that all parents contribute towards the cost of bringing up their children, rather than abdicating these responsibilities and expecting the Welfare State to pick up the tab. Unfortunately, the CSA is failing miserably to have much impact on the monies spent by the Department of Social Security on Income Support payments to those families where an absent parent should be making some financial contribution. So what does it do to camouflage this inadequacy? It targets instead those parents whose children have never been maintained by the Welfare State through DSS benefits, who would have made maintenance payments voluntarily or through the Family Courts, and who have always accepted their parental responsibilities. The CSA is trying to 'con' both the public and the Government by putting out just how much money it is succeeding in bringing in from supposed non-contributing parents. The fact is that much of the money obtained is for 'private' clients, who are not, and may never have been on DSS Benefits. These private clients know that in comparison to what they may expect from a voluntary or Family Court settlement, the CSA assessment will always discriminate against the parent not having actual care of the children.
1997 articles
Extracts (not necessarily contiguous)