CSA STANDS FOR…

24-07-2006

It must have sounded like a good idea at the time - a new government office designed to ensure that parents whose marriage had ended didn't leave didn't leave their kids destitute.

And so the Child Support Agency was born - but it was always a puny runt.

And now after a short and miserable life, we learn that there will be no further attempts at resuscitation.

It will be an unusual funeral, mind.

You'll hear cheers from opponents of meddling, big brother government.

Applause too from parents who willingly tried stumping up for their kids only to become entangled in red tape.

But there will be mums and dad shedding tears too, knowing that unless an efficient replacment is found, many of them will be even worse off than before.

The government is - as ever- talking tough about those who ignore their obligations to their offspring.

Divorced dads and mums who don't cough up for their children are threatened with tagging or the confiscation of their passports.

But how long will that legisaltion take to get onto the statute books? How enforceable will it be?

And what happens in the meantime to 330,000 families caught in the current CSA queue.

It is quite simply a shambles, and one that has been compounded by the government's curious belief that expensive computer programmes and end endless organisational re-shuffles can solve all of life's problems.

They can't.

But what any effective system does needs is clear, focussed leadership unhindered by the day to day political concerns.

It also requires adequate resources, firmly directed at where the problems are most severe.

The CSA blatantly flunks that test on all counts, prompting speculation as to what it's initial really stand for.

Can't Solve Anything? Completely Spinless Always? Computer Squandered Alimony?

John Reid recently described the Home Office he inherited as “not fit for purpose”.

How much truer that statement is of the CSA.

Now that the government has introducing the language of consumer law into politics are we now entitled to ask for our money back?

Leave your comments on our messageboard and tell us what you think the initial CSA should really stand for.