After receiving letters from the Child Support Agency and the Prime Minister , I replied to the CSA, and Cc’d the Prime Minister
CHILD SUPPORT AGENCY (Dudley)
2, Weston Road
CREWE
CW98 1BD
For the attention of Rob NORTHALL
(Parliamentary Business Unit Manager)
03/07/06
Dear Mr Northall
Ref: TO/80580/LB/LL
I refer to your letter of 02/05/06, received on 08/05/06.
I note that none of my questions or points addressed to the Prime Minister were answered in any proper way and I note that you spelt the name of my ex-wife incorrectly (which is an insult to me as it was my name she took in vain). I further note that the leaflet mentioned in your letter as being enclosed was not in fact enclosed. Indeed, I had to repeatedly ring your office to a) get through, and b) obtain a copy of the leaflet.
I was upset before I sent my original letter to Mr Blair. I am so upset now because of the ineffective response that it has taken me until now to calm down enough to reply to you.
I did not in truth expect a personal reply from Mr Blair himself although I did expect to receive some kind of practical response which indicated that my concerns were at least noted. The reply I received from yourself did nothing more than pay lip service to the fact that as an “absent father” I have NO rights at all in the eyes of the CSA. This is NOT what is required.
I am aware that not all cases are the same. You should also be aware that not all cases are the same, yet you persistently state that there is nothing to be done!
It has taken until my third reading of your leaflet on variations to find that you have not considered the debts my ex-wife incurred prior to separation and that these debts should have been taken into account in any calculation of maintenance payments.
At the time of separation there was some £8,000.00 of debt involved which I personally knew nothing about.
My parents organised the clearance of these debts by negotiating with the creditors for a discounted value to clear those debts, amounting to some £6,800.00 left, which they then paid to the creditors. They paid this in the belief that it was the pressure of these debts which caused the separation, as did I at the time. It took several weeks/months to achieve this (by which time Samantha made it clear that she was not coming back anyway).
I was forced to re-mortgage the house to try and repay other debts and to repay my parents but, because I was then forced to pay £10,000.00 to Samantha as part of the divorce agreement, I was unable to pay my parents the full amount.
I still owe them some £2,500.00 of that original debt and I should be able to offset that against any maintenance agreement according to your leaflet.
I therefore formally request a variation on that basis.
I have copied this to the Prime Minister, although I doubt he will see it.
Yours faithfully,
cc. Mr A BLAIR (Prime Minister)