“To pay or not to pay”
Sukhdeep Dhillon
10/11/2015
New figures from the Child Maintenance Service reveal that £35 million of arrears owed to children have accumulated in less than two years since the Child Maintenance Service began providing its services.
Responding to the figures for the period of August 2013 to August 2015, the charity for single parents, namely Gingerbread have stated that a further £1 billion of child maintenance arrears are owed to children in existing Child Support Agency cases which will be transferred to Child Maintenance Service over the next three years for collections. However, there have been numerous questions raised over just how ready the Child Maintenance Service is to take on such a heavy backlog of arrears. During the end of August 2015, the caseload stood at 156,400, an increase of over 20% when compared to May 2015 and has since been increasing.
Gingerbread’s Chief Executive, Fiona Weir stated:
“We call on the Minister to explain what steps are being taken to ensure that firm and thorough action is being taken to collect the money owed for children and that – when transferred to the CMS – existing CSA debts owed for children are not forgotten. This is money hard-pressed single parent families can’t do without.”
These statistics raise concerns over how seriously the new Child Maintenance Service is taking payments of maintenance owed to children.
Fiona Weir has further commented stating:
“With more than half of ‘paying’ parents associated with the maintenance arrears, this is disappointing for a new service where there is a clear government commitment to ensuring that children receive their child maintenance payments on time and in full. When maintenance doesn’t arrive, it means bills can’t get paid and children end up going without.
“At a time when many single parents are facing tax credit cuts, high childcare costs and a range of other welfare reforms, the money separated parents pay to support their children matters more than ever.”
We understand that negotiating a financial settlement in divorce is a skilled and complex task. We consider not only the immediate short-term impact a separation will have on all individuals involved, but also the longer term future needs of both the spouses and children involved.
Legal Aid & Self Representation Concerns
Zara Zaib
10/11/2015
We are living in a time where money is not everything but everything needs money. The law is very needy when it comes to this, barristers and solicitors have very high rates and rightly so because they have to do. Since Legal Aid has been virtually eradicated, it has become difficult for people to obtain justice.
Today Legal Aid is available in some family law areas but the requirements to meet this standard are close to impossible. Legal Aid was once the forth pillar of the welfare state, however even the fact that an ordinary man can fight his own case shows the flexibility the courts have provided here in the UK since the establishment of King John’s Magna Carta 1215. However this has led to a new generation of litigators, ones which have no experience or practice; those who choose to defend themselves as they cannot afford otherwise.
This is becoming an increasing difficulty for the courts as well as the judges. In Veluppillai v Veluppillai, Mostyn said: ‘The public should be aware of the scale of problems that courts administering justice and implementing the rule of law have to face at the hands of unrepresented and malevolent litigants determined to do everything they can to destroy the process’.
The law provides alternate dispute resolutions, such as mediation or arbitration, which are more cost effective, although this does not stop people from standing up in front of a judge in court.
Mr Veluppillai who was fighting a case against his wife for ancillary relief, behaved in a very inhumane manner, he was removed from the court due to his misbehaviour in what Mostyn described as ‘extreme litigation conduct’. He went on to send emails to his wife’s lawyers, as well as the judge – along with his clerk. In these emails he displayed his malevolent mind by making statements such as “YOU ALL MUST BE EXECUTED IN A GAS CHAMBER”.
This kind of behaviour screams illiteracy. The common man needs to be educated on the common law, people should be aware of their rights and also how the law will treat them if they don’t abide by it. Schools need to start educating children on how the law works and the main fundamentals about it, that’s the only way to create an improved generation of citizens who understand the way the law works, and how they should conduct themselves.