Thursday 14 March 2013

Day Ten ~ Time ~ #BlogFlash2013

Time is a constant, so how come sometimes it moves so much quicker or slower than others? No I'm not going to tell you, I have no idea myself either. But time has no limits it seems when it comes to the Child Support Agency.

A Father has to pay the extortionate amounts of Child Maintenance they set every month, two thirds of their wages in some cases, live it total poverty, unable to pay his bills and getting into debt until the child is 16 years old or 18 if they are in further education. 

A Mother who is a friend of A Father, also has a child but the CSA does nothing to collect Child Maintenance because they say they cannot trace the absent father. Even when A Mother  gives them all of his contact details every time he moves house, plus the address of his profitable business.

It doesn't matter if the child leaves home at 16, you still have to pay, you cannot negotiate with the CSA. 

Eventually the children reach 18.
 A Father gets a letter Case Closed, your balance is zero.
  A Mother gets a letter Case Closed, sorry we couldn't help.

A Father gets on with his life, sorting out the financial mess he's been left in. Five years later a letter arrives from the CSA demanding maintenance again for the "child" now in their 20's.

Meanwhile the CSA refuse to  reopen the case for A Mother of a child in their 20's.

The CSA has no concept of time passing.

If you are A Father, who has always done the right thing and paid Child Maintenance, it would appear there is no time limit on how long they can hound you for!!!

If you are A Mother, who they have never collected a penny for, because the absent father refuses to pay and keeps moving around to avoid paying. Then it's Tough Luck!!!

#BlogFlash2013: 21 Days, 21 Prompts, 21 Posts

9 comments:

  1. Yes, these systems are always stupid. They never work for the people who really need help and support. And they never look them case by case, which would be much more suitable for everyone.

    Time is in a way a relative concept.

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    1. Thank you for your comment,

      I wrote this then decided it wasn't right for BlogFlash and was going to turn it into a normal post. When I came back to it this afternoon I realised I had posted it in error and saw our comment so decided to leave it as it is about the passing of time x

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  2. It's a good post Dawn. Time seems to stand still when you are hoping/waiting for something to happen x.

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    1. Thank you Lesley, strange how time moves at different speeds isn't it xx

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  3. I agree it is a good post. The point about Blogflash is to write whatever is there in your heart. I did it with today (the 15ths) post but with TIME, for this post...
    http://cabingoddess.com/2013/03/just-another-four-letter-word-time-blogflash2013/

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    1. Thank you Kriss, I'm a bit behind on catching up with peoples blogs and comments, hope to get to it very soon x

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  4. Sadly, no matter how hard we battle there continues to be discrimination between the sexes. A good post, Dawn, thank you

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  5. I'm glad I've never had to discover this, though I'm sure its a little different in Canada. I don't imagine it is substantially better, though.

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