alas ladytracexx is correct, i know people that are self employed and employed that have successfully avoided paying the CSA for years.

courts do have the power to stop the income at source, great if he's working within a company, harder when self-employed and can get cash in hand, cheques which can be placed into other peoples accounts etc.

Self-employed people can make paper trails to cash disappear, and its a common practice to avoid paying so much tax.

The CSA being scrapped is a good thing in the sense it was unfair in its assesments to the absent fathers(there terms) often leaving some fathers with no money to survive.

The down side to this is the report is that the new department being set up will have strong powers to penalize fathers who cant pay, and heres the catch the only the staff that is currently running the CSA will be the new staff at the new department.

Same shit different department.

i believe women and men should recieve a fair amount of support if the other parent has left, but not at a cost of where the other parent can no longer afford to live.

I beg to differ that the system is biased towards the female, since I am a single mum who has now found herself in the position of paying maintenance.
My daughter and I struggled from when she was aged 7 after i split up from her father. He always managed to avoid paying much maintenance, through one sob story or another, so I had to work my way up the career ladder to pay for things for my daughter so that she didn't miss out. It was hard bloody work having to sort out the childcare as well as work etc.

then in January this year, my daughter, now 15 decided to go and live with her dad. He then got the easy life, her being old enough for him to carry on with his life without any disruption, and I got slapped with a maintenace claim. Because I worked up to earning a fairly good salary I have to pay a huge amount every month to him now, when they didn't even enforce any of his payments to me when she lived with me! Forgive me for thinking the bias was definately towards the male here.

I am a father with care and I must say I have been passed around every department of the csa and palmed off with every imaginable excuse, for one they just do not expect fathers to have care, my 2 chilren wanted to live with me and thats what they did, happily they are now dependant teenagers, the csa did help me in the end but I am still outta pocket.

i think the csa are a waste of time it just causes more animosity between parents, i don't bother with them and i dont get maintenance if he has a few pound spare he'll help out,but to be honest i have the joy of having her everyday so who needs money

whilst i was with my 2nd ex we paid horrendous amounts for the upkeep of his absent daughter. More came out of his wage for the one than we we were allowed for the other 4. Because he was in the NAvy, he was a sitting duck and had knok say at all about it coming out of his wages.

I split up with my husband 12 yrs ago, and our kids stayed with him. He was on a pension, not working, and not once ever has the CSA contacted me regarding maintenance. I'm still clueless as to what it is/was really. We sorted our finances - who needs what when - ourselves amicably (and still do, though our eldest is now 19 and lives independently).
I am mystified why the CSA have never contacted me in 12 yrs, not that I am complaining, but we've never kept a running record of finances so I hope they never do!

Ah, thanks Annmarie - after 12 yrs I can stop worrying about a nasty bill arriving on my doorstep???!!!!