Name and shambles
written by John Bolch
on Wednesday, June 06, 2007
According to the BBC the Child Support Agency is today sending out over 100 letters to parents requesting their permission to name their former partner on the CSA's website, that partner having failed to pay child support. Whether this will actually have any effect remains to be seen - I can imagine the first tranche of 'shamed names' will attract a lot of publicity which may put some pressure on those people, but how often will the names be viewed after that?
The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill, setting out the government's reforms to child support, is also to be published. Will this create an effective replacement for the CSA, or will it be another shambles? More on that later, but don't hold your breath.
June 20, 2007 12:25 PM
This Naming & Shaming process is only available when the absent parent refuses to give contact, work & wage details to the CSA...which is alledgly against the law anyway and can be up to £1000 fine. But lets not forget the little number that is all assigned to us from the age of 16...our national insurance number, but when my ex husband disappeared from the system for 23 months they didn't bother to persue this avenue as it's a lengthy process, six months apparently....errrrrr sorry 23 months has gone by and they did what exactly? Copped a wage, and filed it until i called.