Published in Eastern Daily Press 23/12/11:
We all need to write to our MPs about the the welfare reform bill and urgently. Most of us know about the dangerous changes proposed to welfare for the disabled but a less well publicised attack is being launched against lone parents. And this one is clearly driven by a bizarre desire to protect errant husbands from paying for their promiscuity and philandering. We accept a few of these abandoned parents are men but the vast majority are women.
The incredible idea is to charge the resident parent (you know, the one caring for the children) for the Child Support Agency action in chasing the absent one for money (that's the one who did a runner). The proposal is £100 if the abandoned parent is in work, and £50 if on benefits, thus taking back the benefit! And this could be repeated every time the philandering partner runs off again or just changes bank accounts.
This is pretty immoral but it gets worse - even lone parents who were the victims of domestic violence will pay. Their upfront fee is waived, but they would still have to pay a percentage – 12% is on the table – of their maintenance payments back to the government. Why? How is that reasonable?
So right now, write to your MP. Remind them that the CSA is actually charged with helping lone parents by getting errant fathers to pay for their children rather than us taxpayers. They are not there to take money out of the childrens' mouths.
We all need to write to our MPs about the the welfare reform bill and urgently. Most of us know about the dangerous changes proposed to welfare for the disabled but a less well publicised attack is being launched against lone parents. And this one is clearly driven by a bizarre desire to protect errant husbands from paying for their promiscuity and philandering. We accept a few of these abandoned parents are men but the vast majority are women.
The incredible idea is to charge the resident parent (you know, the one caring for the children) for the Child Support Agency action in chasing the absent one for money (that's the one who did a runner). The proposal is £100 if the abandoned parent is in work, and £50 if on benefits, thus taking back the benefit! And this could be repeated every time the philandering partner runs off again or just changes bank accounts.
This is pretty immoral but it gets worse - even lone parents who were the victims of domestic violence will pay. Their upfront fee is waived, but they would still have to pay a percentage – 12% is on the table – of their maintenance payments back to the government. Why? How is that reasonable?
So right now, write to your MP. Remind them that the CSA is actually charged with helping lone parents by getting errant fathers to pay for their children rather than us taxpayers. They are not there to take money out of the childrens' mouths.
