How Many Fathers Don Pay Child Support?
In 2007, the Liberal Democrats revealed that the Child Support Agency had failed to collect maintenance in 34% of cases where one parent owed money. That figure was four per cent higher than it had been in 2006, meaning more parents (and figures aren’t separated for men and women) weren’t paying their child support. In fact, in 2006, the Agency had a backlog of some 330,000 cases and over £3 billion in unrecovered debt. That’s a lot of unpaid maintenance, and a lot of people walking away scot free. By late 2008, the CSA calculated the figure of those not paying to be 31% – that’s still over 172,000 cases. How Did It Happen?Much of the problem actually lies not with the parents – most of whom are men – but with the CSA itself. Since its establishment it had undergone problems, which were worsened by the installation of a new computer system that was supposed to speed up the process, but ended up causing chaos. That’s not to say the CSA has been completely ineffective. In 2006/7 it prose
