CSA discriminates against single fathers
April 16, 2010
TO WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN 05/04/2010
Complaint 1
I am writing to you once again where the CSA is being very discriminative towards me as a father with care of two children and an absent father of one. The child from my first relationship Kelly Atkins, where I am the absent father to my daughter who is now 15years old 16 on 3/07/2010 and, as a working father I manage to pay her mother £200.69 per month which includes areas but still without failure. But yet when I ask the CSA what arrears’ I owe or when my payments are to cease they never seem to be interested or they never call me back, never send a letter, nor tell me any information over the telephone, but just seem to try to pacify me with no relevant information but I know as I have clarification from the CSA complaints department my arrear are to cease on the 2nd May 2010 which then my monthly payments will reduce.
Complaint 2
My previous partner Lindsay(Linzi) Dawn Sheeran who I have a son to who is 14 years old 15 on the 15/01/2011 and I have been the father with care since (16/04/2007) the child was 11 years old at the time , after 18 months of trying and working with the CSA!!! I managed to get £17 per week and £4 pound’s arrears’ which I still do not know the full amount of arrears because the csa will not inform me of this. I find this amount of £20 pound appalling considering that she had a £34,000 divorce settlement plus left me in £23,000 pounds worth of debt combined but yet when I informed the CSA of this they were not interested, they never offered me any type of advice or help for me and my son Robbie Bullivant which I am lead to believe the csa are there to have the Child’s best interest at heart,?
But all they were interested in were my payments towards my daughter in (compliant 1). But because I am a paying father and making my monthly contributions they are not interestedin my Childs welfare .I eventually managed to get legal advice about the divorce settlement. I was told by my solicitor to contact the CSA and tell them that my ex-wife Lindsay Sheeran had deliberately hid the money or put into accounts where no one could find the amount, (deliberate deprivation I believe it is called which is listed in the csa manual).
I then recently received a bank statement 24/02/2010 and found that she was only paying £5 per week, this is now 8 weeks ago. I then contacted the CSA every week from then on to find out why the amount had dropped to £5 but all they said was her circumstances have changed? I was given no reason why the amount had changed but said they would investigate why it had dropped when they could get in touch with her and then contact me to explain why the amount had been reduced but once again never got back to me, instead the employee on the phone got back on the subject of my payments to (compliant 1 Kelly Atkins), but for whatever reason I do not know as I am paying without failure and have proof of My payments which go back to march 2007.
Then my ex-wife Lindsay Dawn Sheeran then declared herself bankrupt in April 2009, consequently resulting in a further £14500 of debt being transferred to me. I must make you aware at this point that the main reason she declared herself bankrupt was as a result of the CSA finally catching up with her, and consequently she felt she did not and should not be paying for the son she left with me! The CSA was still not interested and brushed it off, but said that I had a legal right to pay for my 15 year old daughter which I have never neglected payment .When I get on the subject of my previous ex- wife Lindsay Dawn Sheeran and her payments the CSA they are just not bothered about the welfare of my son probably because I am the father with employment and just not bothered or not interested in helping the single father.
This has been a very complicated case due to my ex-wife Lindsay dawn sheeran having four different surnames i.e. (Ward maiden name, Cordon 1st married name, Bullivant 2nd married name and Sheeran 3rdmarried name) and spells her fore name 2 different ways i.e.(Lindsay,Linzi) and trying to trace her proved difficult, but when you did I totally believed we had got to the bottom of this! Obviously back up to her old tricks and trying to outdo the system, which she is managing to do yet again. But for those of us who are honest father and attempt to work with the system, you get penalised i.e. for being the working paying father.
When I contacted the CSA with this new highlighted problem, they told me they could do nothing against her, but when I explained that my circumstances had also changed, so consequently I would have to reduce my payments to my daughter, I was threatened with immediate court action. Where is the justice when the absent mother can reduce her payments and absolutely nothing is done about it? When I asked them for court action against her yet again it fell on deaf ears and I they said they had a system to follow which I find a joke as they said I would be put me in court if I missed any payment yet again discrimination to the single father again .
I have no other alternative to again take my case further as all my ex-wife Lindsay Dawn Sheeran and the CSA are doing is depriving my two resident children Cameron Bullivant age 19mths and Robbie Bullivant, which seems hypocritical when you are supposed to be there for the child. I ask you what £5 a week would do for a 14 year old child when it does not even provide any type of clothing or any type of future life for my son Robbie Bullivant, yet I am the one picking up the pieces and trying to give my son some sort of future, but am finding this more and more difficult when I am paying £200.69 per month to give my absent daughter a future, yet due to your discrimination and unfair treatment I cannot guarantee that for my two sons that live with me. As you may be aware I am UN happy about how so differently I am being treated in being a non resident and resident parent and I am willing to go as high as I can and go to all the news papers and TV programs to get my case acr!
oss to do with this discrimination of how I am being treated as a father with care and an absent father.
I have contacted the csa on a weekly basis (05/02/2010,)(12/02.2010)(19/02/2010)(26/02/2010) and so on up to present about my cases and yet again no joy I take this that they do not want to do anything for my son and myself which I was told in a previous conversation which infuriated me. Also I received a phone call from Newcastle csa saying I owed £1400 pounds for failing to pay my csa payments which I informed them that my case was clerical and was in the hands of Bolton csa .Still to date I have not had any phone call or letter of apology for their mistake again. I have not even received a payment schedule with regards to my son’s absent mother or any sort of apology for the bad service I have spoken to line managers and supervisors and they all say we promise we will look in to your case for you but that is the last time I ever speak to them. Once they put the phone down it just gets filed in the not bothered cabinet we will worry about it at another time.
- Discrimination towards the single father
- Mr Bullivant pays £200.69 per month
- Mrs Lindsay dawn sheeran pays £20 per month
- Do not no Lindsay D Sheerans amount of arrears’ to Mr.Bullivant CSA will not give me the information
- Ask about arrears’ could not or would not tell me
- Inadequate employees unable to answer any questions i am entitled to ask
- Lindsay Sheeran is paying £5 per week a contribution that would not be adequate to help bring up a 14 year old child
- The frustration and emotion created by the clear ineptitude of the CSA is shared by our entire family
- Declan Martin Senior Resolutions Manager for the CSA is approached, who gave the case to malackie McAverner and also Denise Allison both from Falkirk CSA which was `resolved but was handed to CSA Bolton and back to the beginning again due to inadequate staff
- Telephone calls almost always result in a promise to ring back .this has never happened
- In Telephone calls, CSA staff state they understand the situation. Clearly, they do not
- What on earth is the time scales on such matters? By the time the CSA get to grips with this the child will have grown up and may be left home?
- IT WOULD HAVE TO BE SURMISED THAT THE CSA, CONSIDER THE CHILD’S WELFARE’’, AND“TREAT SINGLE FATHERS LESS FAVOURABLY THAN SINGLE MOTHERS’’.ONLY HARD PREVIOUS EVIDENCE COULD PROVE OTHERWISE.
- ARE YOU AWARE THE ROLE OF THE CSA IS TO MAKE SURE THAT THE PARENTS WHO LIVE APART FROM THEIR CHILDREN CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS THEIR CHILDREN’S UPKEEP BY PAYING MAINTENANCE.
I WOULD LIKE TO ASK WHAT EXACTLY DOES THE CSA DO TO JUSTIFY ITS EXISTENCE?
I hope to hear from you soon with regards to my concerns
Also cc into this letter is
Gordon Brown MP Number10.gov.uk
David Cameron MP CAMEROND@parliament.uk
Nick Clegg MP www.nickclegg.org.uk
Clive Betts Local MP BettsC@parliament.uk
Harriet Harman MP HARMANH@parliament.uk
Miller Ray CSA DURHAM HOUSE CSR RAY.MILLER@CSA.GSI.GOV.UK
csa-ne1@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
KANE, Michael
CALLISTERL@parliament.uk>
Steven Wignall (Cabinets Office) Steven.Wignall@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov
Stephen Geraghty, (Chief Executive CSA) STEPHEN GERAGHTY@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK
Peter Horrocks, Head of current affairs www.guardian.co.uk
ATTACHED TO THIS EMAIL IS THE PRVIOUSE LETTERS TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE CSA TO THE HOUSE’S PARLIAMENT WHICH HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE MARCH 2009
Yours Sincerely
Mr L S Bullivant
Comments
2 Responses to “CSA discriminates against single fathers”
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Lee.
I fear you are getting stressed over thinks which the CSA have no control over.
If your ex is receiving job seekers allowance for example, or is in low paid employment, then the assessment can easily be £5 pw. That is the system, it is not any discrimination against resident fathers. Also under the data protection act they probably cannot tell you why her income has reduced, even if they know the reason.
Furthermore, I belive that in order to utilise the NRP’s assets for the purpose of CM then that needs to be in excess of £60,000 excluding home equity. So even if she has hidden the £34,000 it would likely make no difference to her assessment.
Lastly, bankruptcy does not extinguish CM arrears with the CSA!
Yes, I agree they are utter rubbush at what they do, but there is no point in complaining to all and sundry about them about matters where they aren’t in the wrong.
Belatedly read the last comment about what the CSA can and cannot do. The bottom line is that ordinary citizens are led to believe that the CSA’s function is to correct the issues of providing necessary support for children affected by separated parents. Simplistically, seeking financial contribution from the absent parent. Isn’t that how the CSA was justified ?
In practice, the story has tended to be preoccupied with what ordinary folk see as the norm, i.e. obtaining financial support from fathers. However, the politically correct presentation is that the deal apploies to absent mother’s too. This is where the whole thing appears less equal.
When the CSA didn’t come up with the goods in Mr Bullivant’s case, despite repeated “promises” that things were in hand, and money would soon be forthcoming, nothing happened. At no point did CSA personnel indicate they could not assist.
Long, drawn out lack of satisfactory resolution justified bringing the matter to the attention of others, particularly politicians. Those that did reply promised action, or supported the views of CSA inadequacy. Again, at no time did these “clever” people suggest the CSA could not resolve the situation.
Amongst all this, a young boy is not receiving support from his absent mother because strategies are being used to avoid, no more no less. research strongly suggests that the politically correct playing field is anything but level. The CSA should have corrected this situation long ago, and have patently failed in their duty, whatever that is.