CSA is the Great 20th Century Social Experiment

As an initial supporter of the Agency from it’s concept until I became a near-suicidal AP having dealt with them, I cannot believe that this nonsense still prevails to this day.

The concept of the Agency arose from the steeply increasing numbers of single parents (deliberate or otherwise) supported by the State, and had nothing to do with Mrs T belief that the Courts were inadequate in dealing with child maintenance, or as her modern counterpart put it, dealing judiciously with feckless fathers.
Mrs T’s relentless Keynsian economics had no emotion or social justice in mind, just bare economics as history shows.
The feckless father stereotype of wham-bang-etc was there to be exploited, and by god it was and still is. But it was not they who were the patsies, divorcing couples and legal aid patterns were where the money was, and guess who the largest proportion of Agency clients still are?.
That is why everything was written around benefits, including the AP on paper having “free” income of a minimum 1p above the limit at which benefits would obtain. That is the nub of it, revenue recovery, nothing more,

I have known only one father in all my years who had no interest in his kids or of their financial support, although I am quite sure more exist. The reality of what is portrayed as a stereotype has a great deal more to do with perspective and psychological games from both angry parents rather than the small percentage who are simply selfish bastards. If it were examinable under law then that perhaps would shed more light, but of course it can not be so examined.

In my own case, the demand for an extra 100 pounds maintenance broke me financially and forced resignation 5 months before the Appeal Unit found it should have been a reduction of 100. By the time this minor error was highlighted, I was out of work and of the UK, and now have no desire to return other than in a small urn. No government entity beyond the secret service has been given such draconian powers beyond legal challenge or independent scrutiny, including those DWP anonymous calls over potential bad publicity to your employer because no legal mechanisms exist.

The incredible 4 and 5 figure sums created as arrears were a real additional boost in morale for a guy struggling to maintain due payments and constructively work. These manuscripts could neither be challenged nor examined outwith the Agency, and so they remain, somewhere in an archive.

My kids have since been directly financially supported as they require with no control over it by the Agency or the PWC, neither of whom were best pleased for their own financial reasons.

Summary – As an exercise in social engineering/justice and child welfare, the Agency have been a disaster. As a replacement to the Courts of Law they have been far from just. Bring them under the scrutiny of the Courts and it might just get somewhere.