MP Philip Davies calls for abolition of CSA
Tory Member of Parliament Philip Davies has called upon the government to dismantle the Child Support Agency.
The furious MP for Shipley has said that responsibility for the pursuit of parents who are not making payments towards the upkeep of their children should be returned to the courts.
His outburst came after the revelation that absent parents across Yorkshire have failed to pay nearly £100m in child support. In a recent national ‘league table’ of debt, published by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, parents in the Leeds Central constituency alone owed £9,612,000 in maintenance payments. Of the UK’s 650 constituencies, Leeds Central came in at eighth place.
The statistics, which are a snapshot of the national CSA debt mountain as of March this year, showed that the total amount owed increased by £1.7m over the last year and now currently stands at £98.7m.
Alarmingly, this figure is a conservative estimate. CMEC has owned up to the fact that these figures only include data from one of the pair of IT systems they uses, and that in all likelihood they have underestimated the scale of the debt.
Despite the apparent failings in collecting child maintenance, CMEC say that the situation is getting better. A spokesperson commented:
“Total payments and the number of children benefiting from them have increased by more than 40 per cent since 2005.
“While the Commission shares the view that responsibility for unpaid maintenance rests ultimately with non-resident parents, it should be noted that CSA arrears have actually been falling.”
Phillip Davies MP remained unimpressed. He stated:
“I think these figures are a huge indictment on the failure of the CSA.
“It has been an expensive bureaucratic nightmare that has failed miserably.
“When something has failed as spectacularly, you have to accept the fact and go back to the drawing board.”
10 thoughts on “MP Philip Davies calls for abolition of CSA”
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Its about time the csa ruin lives without a thought care or consideratin to anyone they should be prosecuted all the people they have made homeless because of their draconian regime
Finally, an MP to publicly state that administering and penalising failed relationships with one set of rules has, and never will, work. It is a sinking ship that can never float, regardless of how much taxpayers money is spent, new powers given or new targets set.
hes got my vote finaly a honest person which say the truth
One MP that would get my vote, but all well and good, shouting about it, doing something is better!
Finally an mp that sees through this shambles now get it up in front of parliament and do something about it, let thepeople of this country have a fair argument in court and have a FAIR decision reached that is reasonable AND AFFORDABLE. really hope that something is now done and this terrible company is abolished as it has destroyed my life, my childrens life and made my husband a broken man.
I have written to my local MP & to Iain Duncan-Smith MP (in charge of the CSA, via DWP) to state how unfair the CSA is & put forward a number of proposals to make it better. Not heard back yet, don’t know whether they are taking their time or they have simply realised that people who have actually suffered through the CSA know how to make it better. As Karen says, don’t just moan about it. The problem with us Brits is that we are good at moaning, crap at doing. If we all pressurise our MP’s (& Iain Duncan-Smith in particular) via emails / letters / Facebook, etc. then maybe we together can change it for the better (especially if they think it will cost them votes).
It should not be called the CHILD protection ageny it should be called the RESIDENT PARENT protection agency or the GOVERMENT protection agency – Has nobody questioned why the resident parent is not made accountable for how and where and on whom or what the money is spent on when it is received from the NON RESIDENT parent , NO ? HOW STUPID WERE THEY TO EVER IMAGINE THAT IT WOULD. ofcourse it operates as a thuggish , debt collection agency that allows the resident parent to exploit the non resident parent for money and to harrass them . Does this benefit the child??? DOES ANYBODY LOOK AT THE ABUSES OF THE SYSTEM ? WHY is biased for the resident parent? why does it make the assumption that the RP is the only parent who is ‘paying for ‘ the child? or is paying for the child at all? what about the costs the NRP incurs when the child spends time with them? twhy does that not get taken into account??he amount of money spent is proportionate to the amount of time spent . Why should not BOTH parents be required to demonstrate that they are spending on the child each according to their own time with the child ??WHAT about the fact that resident parents that aviod paying themselves because they can know that the law will make the non-resident parent pay to add insult to the injury that not only are they prevented from seeing their child as normal parents do but they have to pay the person who is preventing them from seeing the child. is that justice? is that in the interests of the children? you do not have to be a genius to work it out? it all about creating conflict so that the courts, and lawyers make money out of other peoples misery. THE CSA SHOULD BE DISSOLVED WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT to SAVE MONEY > the goverment cannot afford to keep running this quango
Ive been trying to contact the various MPs over the years to be heard, spoken to Eddie Nestor on BBC Radio London talkshow and Vanessa Feltz too, my MP doesnt even bother coming back to me anymore (12 yrs) no one wants to deal with this problem, why?
should be returned to the courts- from above
at last some sense
Some mothers like my babies mother deliberatley keep my child away from me because she hates me,
from birth to her now being 6.
I’ve been in court all that time fighting for my daughters rights. i started paying her £250 per month for my precious daughter , but the witch still would not let her see me.
6 years on she does nothing but what the court tells her to do, she has thought for our daughter,t
i’ve now ran out of savings and have lost my business.
I give her more than i am entitled to (according to the csa) but she chooses to give me grief through them.
I have refused to give money for my daughter through the csa prefering to pay it into the mothers bank account.
csa do not check the loyalty of loving caring paying fathers, just what bitter mothers say.
without a criminal record they dragged me up to court because i refused to supply them with my low income details and i was nearly given a criminal record.
just got a new form to tell them how much in debt i am. how much will they want from that?
some fathers like me would love to contribute at least £100 per week to buy food for my child.
but it has to be said,. my babies mother is so evil that even if i won
100 million on the lotto i would still give her £100 per week!. my child of coarse would havee all that is nessesary but i would make sure the mother never benefited at all from it.
By the way her own father is a millionaire but because she’s so nasty he does not see her right. says alot about the mother eh. if only she would want her daughter to have a relationship with her dad as much as she wants money from him then that would be another child who feels loved by both parents equally