Man faces Ruin because of CSA

Father Freddie Harrison is facing financial ruin because of the child support agency. He claims he will end up on streets, unable to keep his home, if the CSA doesn’t reassess what he owes for his children. He is currently having £300 per month deducted direct from his wages as the result of a DEO (deduction of earnings order).

It’s not that I’m refusing to pay, I have never refused to pay. I have had regular contact with my children and have always paid to help support them except last year when I was unemployed and didn’t have any money.

Freddie Harrison has children with two ex partners and they’ve been in touch with the child support agency to say that he hasn’t been making regular payments for his kids. Mr Harrison says that he gave them his details so they could pass them on to the CSA, but was stunned when the CSA calculated how much he was to pay.

I am not one of those fathers who is not interested in their children and has nothing to do with them and has never paid to support them. I care for them and they regularly come to stay with me. But if the CSA insist on taking this money it is going to literally ruin me.

I work to live, I don’t have lots of luxuries, I don’t go on holiday, I drive an old banger and practically all my money goes on keeping a roof over my head and that of my partner and her daughter.

Mr Harrison says the CSA are not taking into consideration any of his outgoings aside for tax and national insurance contributions. Sadly that is the case with the child support agency. They do not take into consideration any of your outgoings when you are the non resident parent. You are expected to pay what they calculate, and there is nothing you can do about.

I don’t consider my nett wage as fritter money, in fact it is extremely hard to make ends meet. I pay rent, council tax, road tax, car maintenance, utility bills, VAT on everything we buy including food, but none of these are seen as essential living costs.

Both Mr Harrison and his partner work rather than claim benefits, though if he did become unemployed the sad truth is he may be financially better off. Mr Harrison has written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown to ask why the child support agency are so wantonly punishing loving parents, though it is unlikely the PM will interject as thousands of fathers have been persecuted by the CSA to date, with many becoming bankrupt or even committing suicide.