I am insulted and angry that I have received a letter from the Child Support Agency informing me the child support my ex husband has failed to pay is a debt that is about to be written off. I struggled for several years as a working single mother with no help from my ex. From time to time I received a few payments but they were few and far between. For most of my sons childhood my ex was excused from having to support his child. Over a period of 18 years he was assessed as only owing a total of about £9,000 with total receipts of only a few hundred pounds. Due to the difficulties retrieving the money’s owed a court order was acquired by the CSA and we received advice from them, that however old my son was we would always be entitled to it, that the CSA had the power to freeze his bank account, take his passport or gain payment direct from his salary/benefit.

I am now informed the debt is being written off unless I can provide his address, phone number, bank account or phone number!! My ex is either working and paying tax or in receipt of benefits so why can’t  a government department trace this information?

I am astounded this is being allowed to happen, it is a green light to all absent parents who lack morals to neglect their responsibilities to their children. It is a kick in the teeth to struggling parents who are working hard, it also highlights the incompetence of government departments that are unable to use the data available within their own data bases.

HMRC very quickly notified my new partner, who was supporting my son as well as his own child, that he owed them money, this was due to the fact I had claimed child benefit. Immediately they changed his tax code to repay them the money I had mistakenly claimed. All because he was a good guy bringing up another mans child!

I am not alone in receiving this letter, there must be thousands who have been let down by the system, a system that is now sticking two fingers up to all the responsible, caring hardworking parents and making a mockery of our struggle to provide a good life for the future generation, whilst low life missing parents are being given a full pardon. What kind of message is this sending out? Law and order in this country is in a mess right now and it’s not a wonder when totally callous wrong decisions like this are being made. It’s time to support those that help themselves, contribute to society and raise the next generation not those with total disregard for anything including their own flesh and blood.

Please support this petition and demand the CSA not only stops the writing off of debt but actually use data and technology available to track these people and force them to pay their dues.