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No support from the CSA
In 1997, New Labour promised a swift and far-reaching reform of the hopelessly inefficient Child Support Agency. In the last few weeks, a series of new agency disasters have come to light - including writing off £2 billion of absentee parent debt that their children will never receive; and a debacle over a missing new computer system, due to have started last April and now at least £50 million over budget. Far from getting better, things have only got worse.
I know this only too well from first-hand experience. My own relationship with the CSA began in February 2000 when my son was seven. Although his father was head of media studies at a university, he had never given any financial support. Now, though, with expenses rising every year, I felt it was time for a contribution. I wrote, but, receiving no reply, I reluctantly turned to the CSA.
A delaying game
My reluctance was due to the many reports I'd heard of the tortuous and mystifying procedures of the agency - it made Kafka's Castle sound like child's play. Nevertheless, without an alternative, I dived in. The first thing to strike the uninitiated is how painfully slow the processes are. The CSA doesn't act unless you chase - and often not then either.
This is all very useful for fathers - and it is almost always fathers - who want to delay. In our case, my son's father replied at the very end of the three-month time limit to - to my astonishment - dispute paternity. He then took six months to get around to a blood test, explaining to the CSA that he'd had a two-month holiday in the US and then missed an appointment. No problem for the CSA. We finally got confirmation of paternity in December 2000, ten months after my initial contact with the agency.
At this point, the agency finally made an assessment of a suitable financial contribution for my son. This is a complex and lengthy procedure and as soon as it had reached a conclusion, it suddenly and unaccountably moved the case to another CSA office. This was a pattern that was to be repeated five times, always without an explanation - and, of course, without any payment.
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