Child Support In Action Paperback

Gwynn Davis

This book presents a wholly new perspective on the Child Support Agency. The authors were granted privileged access to the CSA's own staff and were thus able to monitor case conduct from both the Agency and the client perspective. In a gripping analysis they compare the accounts of former husbands and wives with those of their respective legal advisers,and, critically, they incorporate the experience and views of the beleaguered CSA staff who attempted to calculate and enforce child maintenance obligations in those same cases. The media picture of the misery visited upon 'absent fathers' is borne out in part, but even more striking is the authors' account of a catastrophic administrative failure which led to the abandonment of many of the basic tenets of administrative justice. The reasons do not lie in the perceived unfairness of the formula but rather in the failure of those drafting the Child Support legislation to appreciate the impact of such change upon the rest of our hugely complex benefit structure. Their failure to grasp that the problems of inadequate disclosure and ineffective enforcement - with which courts had grappled for decades - could not be tackled effectively by a distant bureaucracy.

1901362701

9781901362701

English

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

19-Apr-98

224

Gwynn Davis is Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Bristol. Nick Wikeley is Professor of Law at the University of Southampton. Richard Young is Professor of Law and Policy at Bristol University.

Nick Wikeley

Richard Young

Julie Bedward

Jackie Barron

Gillian Douglas Journal of Social Security Law September 2002 There will be much to interest Australian readers, because the authors consider a number of issues that arise in any statutory scheme of child support. John Dewar Australian Journal of Family Law September 2002 Valuable reading for all involved in family law. Carole Jean Family Matters September 2002 The book tells quite a fascinating story I relished the level of detail included and became immersed in the clients' cases; the different perspectives; the attempts by absent parents and parents with care to paint a particular picture; the efforts made by some absent parents to minimise the level of maintenance, contrasting with the desperate attempts of some parents with care to receive it; the seemingly endless struggle of the Agency staff to cope with the complexity of the formula and of people's lives; and above all the overwhelming confirmation that the policy as it currently stands is quite simply undeliverable Let's hope this government can use this important research to ensure that the new system delivers. Colette Roberts Benefits February 2003 You need a copy: if you want to add your voice to a debate about the system of child maintenance that is needed; or if you are a child affected, a parent of that child or a Child Support Agency (CSA) worker and want insight into what may be happening for others in the system. As such it is essential reading for the legal advisers of all those individuals. James Pirrie Family Law February 2003