I just want the CSA to acknowledge their failure to do their duty by my son

My son was born in July 1992 and by the time he was three months old his father had left us.

I was fortunate in having a decent job to return to and did so when my son was six months old. The old maintenance system was in place at the time and I knew that it would probably be a waste of time and money taking my ex to court as a friend had recently been granted £2pw! In 1996 the CSA was up and running so I applied. I waited around six months to be told that I was entitled to £5pw out of my ex’s dole money. I waited and received nothing. Over the next five or six years I telephoned and wrote to them and at no time received anything resembling an apology or reason for their failure to deal with his failure to pay. I occasionally received a letter telling me how much I was owed (now running into thousands) and that I would continue to receive £0.00 or even £?.

Fast forward to 2008, I was made redundant and had to claim benefits for the first time. No sooner had my claim hit the claims centre, I received a call from the CSA telling me that I needed to claim. I told them politely that I had made a claim twelve years earlier and that they had failed to deliver. They made oh type noises and hung up. Our home was repossessed and I went to live in the next town with my new partner. My son wanted to stay where he was and asked his grandmother if he could stay with her. She agreed to this provided I paid. 20 weeks after making my claim for JSA I had still not been processed and my mother would not believe this. She has no knowledge of the benefit system and it was her opinion that pestering the claims office would put me at the front of the queue. I tried to explain that it made no difference but being an authoritarian type she had her own beliefs on the situation and came to the conclusion that I was living in luxury and being kept. My partner is long term sick and we were surviving on his benefit so far from living it up. My relationship with my mother broke down irretrieveably. I found work in early 2009 but had a complete breakdown. I was on sickness benefits for a year. My mother set the CSA on me and was awarded £5pw. I had no objection to paying for my son but she refused to believe I had nothing to live on whilst I was waiting for my claim to go through. When I came off sickness benefits I spent the next two years or so in and out of poorly paid part time work. It was October 2012 before I found a proper job although it paid no where near what I earned pre 2008. This week I was taken to Court by the CSA as I owed my mother £346 in arrears. In the intervening period I reminded the CSA of their inability to make my ex pay and on the assumption that he too would be prosecuted my arrears could be paid out of what he owed me for 16 of the years in question. I asked if my mother had persued him too for contributions from the time that she claimed against me. Again, I received no response, just a summons. So I now have to pay but what about my ex? He has paid zilch whilst I worked long hours in London, paid a mortgage, a childminder and made sure that my son had the things that other children had. I find it absolutely outrageous that someone can get away with it when I am immediately penalised. As I said before, I accepted the role of a parent when I became pregnant and have never suggested that my son’s welfare was not my responsibility or stood back from my financial obligations as a parent.

I would like to see the CSA in Court for their failure towards my son during the first eighteen years of his life. I am sure my son’s human rights have been breached let alone my own.
My ex – he claimed benefits and did the double working on a market stall for cash in hand. He drinks, smokes, gambles and worse irrespective to whose detriment it may be. At one time I presented the Jobcentre with all the info they would have needed to prosecute him; including letting them know when he was working just around the corner from them. I even offered to have someone point him out. Still the bastard laughs in everyone’s face whilst children and pensioners go without as benefits are cut.

I would be happy to give anything I was awarded in court to my son as I am not in this for me. I just want the CSA to acknowledge their failure to do their duty by my son. At one time my local (now disgraced and sacked) MP was interested but that too came to nothing. If there is anyone out there in a similar position how about we take the CSA to court and make them pay for what rightfully belongs to our children.