Child Support Agency charges under scrutiny by government committee

July 22, 2011

The government’s controversial decision to charge parents for using the child support agency to help them resolve their child support issues has been condemned by a select committee for the Department of Work and Pensions.

In the report it published, the committee called the plans “excessive” and stated that the government should be focusing on aiding parents to make voluntary arrangements for child support, rather than focusing on charging for the use of their service. The committee feels that the government needs to offer much more support to separated parents, rather than simply having the idea that the charges will mean parents will have to cooperate with one another on their own – which there is a lot of doubt is a realistic expectation.

The report goes on further to state that these charges shouldn’t be used in most cases, and should instead only be used against a parent who is uncooperative and is not willing to otherwise make child support arrangements.

The chair of the committee, Anne Begg, said in a statement that these charges will affect parents who are in the position of caring for the children the most, rather than affecting the non-resident parent.

Another worry about the charges is that parents may feel they are not getting value for money. The Child Support Agency is still highly inefficient and fails to collect millions of pounds worth of child maintenance payments every year. Additionally, the Fatherhood Institute supported the opinions of the committee, stating that separated families need better support in order to come to agreements.

Comments

  • R Turenr says:

    I’ve been fighting child support for 17 years, each time my childs father moved to another state or got another job i was the one to do the leg work to get his information. everytime you call child support they are reading a script and can’t even answer your questions and you are always told someone will get back to you in 30 days. This is wrong now the fedeal gov’t wants to use low income mothers who are struggling to get child support and charge them $25 this is crazy someone needs to do something. What will the Gov’t do with the millions they make? why not pay the mothers that have not received the support in years and put the fathers in jail and make them repay the money owed.

  • Woodall says:

    This will only make them (CSA) more money because the accounting is wrong! How do I know? Well, for many years (since 1991) I have been in courts proving they r wrong with my clients winning. I could tell some other stuff but looks like I’m running out room. Good bless.

  • >