The number of parents paying for their children through the Child Support Agency (CSA) has hit a record high, the government has claimed.
Four in four parents involved with the CSA now pay for their children voluntarily, according to statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions. Meanwhile, the number of unwilling parents who have had child support deducted directly from their
The UK government’s methods of monitoring child maintenance are misleading, single parent charity Gingerbread has claimed.
In a new consultation on ways of increasing the accuracy of financial reporting, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced that it plans to continue counting child maintenance payments as paid in full when the Child Support Agency
A 44 year-old from Featherstone, near Pontefract in West Yorkshire, has admitted fraud after sending another man along to a paternity test.
John Bullett was contacted by the Child Support Agency about child support payments
High Court judge Mr Justice Holman has adjourned a paternity hearing after finding the evidence from a DNA test too vague for legal purposes.
In the recently published case, a man called David Elliott had gone to court seeking a
Just under 80 per cent of the parents currently targeted by the Child Support Agency (CA) are paying maintenance, according to new figures.
Out of a total of 882,200 individual cases being handled by the agency in December last
Just how much child maintenance a non-resident parent should pay is an complex and emotive subject. Over the 20 years of its existence, the Child Support Agency (CSA) earned a reputation, amongst other things, for heavy-handed inflexibility in its pursuit of
Every month I appear on ITV’s This Morning, for a regular ‘Divorce Clinic’ in which I answer viewers’ questions live on air. One subject is always guaranteed to prompt a deluge of messages, tweets and phone
Next Monday the Department for Work and Pensions will begin rolling out a package of reforms that will eventually see the much reviled Child Support Agency (CSA) replaced by the new Child Maintenance Service.
And according to an article in the Daily Mail, these reforms will mean a hike in child maintenance payment for many because their assessments will be based on their gross pay, rather than their after tax salary as currently occurs. Apparently 74 per cent of non-
Earlier this week, I blogged about the gay man who twice donated sperm to help a lesbian couple have children, and who has now been ordered to pay child maintenance by the CSA. Today I appeared on ITV This Morning alongside Mark Langridge, the man in the middle of the story, to discuss his circumstances and the law with presenters Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford. Here is Mark Langridge’s case in summary.
In a robust judgement sure to cause consternation, the Court of Appeal has condemned the Child Support Agency (CSA) for “obnoxious” and “unreasonable” legal failings in threatening fathers with jail without giving them the right to defend themselves.
A gay man who twice donated sperm to help a lesbian couple have children has been ordered by the Child Support Agency (CSA) to pay maintenance.
Mark Langridge, from Essex, has been told to pay £26 per week towards the upbringing of
Earlier today I appeared on ITV’s This Morning, sitting alongside Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield answering viewers’ questions about child maintenance. The volume of calls, emails and tweets was high, and many of the questions about child maintenance followed the same theme. There was a lot of confusion over the process that governs the obtaining of child support, and many problems with non-payment or under-payment of maintenance, whether spousal support or for children.
I don’t often cover child support on this blog and I know it is a subject that arouses strong emotions. In the cases I do come across the outcomes are far from what a well-grounded family lawyer would regard as realistic or certain.
In recent weeks one case has set a marker that could prove significant for those struggling to receive a fair level of child maintenance from an absent parent – the recent High Court case of FG v MBW ([2011] EWHC 1729 (Fam).
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