Sometimes I just have to laugh at the Child Support Agency. When I first encountered them, like most people, I was staggered by the lack of understanding, their indifference, their incompetence and, yes, their lies. I thought I must be really unlucky. Of course, four years on I realise that I wasn’t unlucky, I wasn’t cursed, I wasn’t being singled out – the CSA really is that bad… to everyone.
The website CSAhell.com (which is being mentioned in the Sunday Telegraph this weekend) receives dozens of emails every day from people pouring their heart out about how the CSA has failed them, is persecuting them or just isn’t listening to them; and no, it’s not just fathers – it’s an equal split between mothers and fathers. The CSA is useless on every level.
We have documented proof of their having lied, their having sent documents to the wrong addresses, breached the Data Protection Act and, most worryingly, of them having attempted to goad fathers into suicide. This isn’t rhetoric, this has all happened and has all been reported on the website CSAhell.com. These are facts.
Now however it seems that the Child Support Agency isn’t happy with the website and, in particular, its Facebook page. It seems that the CSA is unhappy that members of the Facebook page have been posting links to profile pages of people who have listed the CSA as their employer.
This news story chronicles the complaint from the CSA, and reports how they’re intent on shutting the website down. Here’s a quick quote from the piece, where Dave Richards, the PCS DWP Group Assistant Secretary, boasted:
“Staff in CSA do an important job collecting record amounts of maintenance and helping lift children out of poverty. They should have the right to do so free from harassment and threats of violence.”
“I am pleased to report that CSA and the Security Management Team are taking the matter very serious and are having successes in closing the site and/or having the worst elements removed.”
“It’s important that any staff with a Facebook account make sure it’s locked and they remove their employment details from their pages. This will stop such anti CSA sites from getting easy access to your details and putting you on their name and shame list”.
I find it hilarious that the CSA is looking to close the site down, and that they’re upset over how our members have been posting links to the profiles of their staff. However, here’s some advice for the CSA…
If you don’t want your staff to be plastered all over the Internet, how about you:
- Don’t post on websites such as Facebook that you work for the CSA
- Don’t post up photos of yourself, next to the aforementioned information that you work for the CSA
- Don’t set your profile to ‘public’
- Don’t post on websites such as CSAhell.com and the CSAhell.com Facebook page abusing people
These simple ideas aside, here’s one for the CSA itself. Rather than investing so much time (and public money, our money) trying to cover up the mistakes, incompetence, lies and general abuse of power by trying to shut down sites like CSAhell.com, and trying to gag people from speaking about their cases online (yes, we’ve heard about them too) why not just tackle the route of the problem and do your jobs properly in the first place? We, the public, have had enough of the corruption, the lies, the feathering of nests, the hatred and the lack of empathy from the CSA – we’re not going to go away quietly, we’re not going to stop what we’re doing, we’re not going to give in to your demands.
Throw your worst at us. We’ve already taken more than most would believe humanly possible by the very fact they we deal with the CSA. That in itself is more than any threats could afford.
We await your next move.
Darren Jamieson, aka MrDaz, is the Technical Director and co-founder of Engage Web and has been working online in a career spanning two decades. His first website was built in 1998 and is still live today.
And don’t gloat on Facebook about how you have evicted a family from their home. How irresponsible can you be? And how inhumane? But that’s the CSA for you. They put you out of work and bankrupt you all in the name of Child Support. And they then give none me the money taken to your children! What hypocracy!
I’m just keeping my head down. I’ve got enough problems with my son’s Education Authority!
The CSA has driven me to absolute despair, I now cannot work because they want to take more than I can afford to pay and cover all my outgoings.
They phone me constantly, which has made me mentally and physically ill!
I have been reading many of the stories of mostly hard working honest people, who want to contribute to there children, but are forced to pay unreasonable ammounts which leaves there lives pointless and some then resort to the only option they feel left.
The CSA says it wants to stop child poverty, what a load of crap! Why do they then destroy fathers with second families and take more than they can possibly pay? Doesn’t that leave the children of the second family in poverty?
I just have a girlfriend now with no kids at home, but to use kids as the excuse to blatently steal everything from all of us makes me sick.
I’m afraid the CSA is only a tiny part of this countries problems, there is so much corruption and abuse of power. Alot of people are individuals doing all they can to rip off good honest folk, they just see us as easy meat. Social breakdown has left this country largely souless, with no sense of community and empathy for our fellow men and women!
Looking at history this happens over and over again, you get a few at the top who become more powerful, rich and corrupt at the expence of the many. Eventually the poor and suppressed become so desparate they resort to overwhelming violence and the balance is restored for awhile, only for the circle to start again. It’s just a fault of human greed, All I want is to work and have enough to live without stress, Why does anyone need billions in the bank? Why does our government want to crush us into nothing but emotional wrecks. They bang on about human rights of people in other countrys ( then bomb the shit out of them! ). What about our right to live, work and have a home without being hounded out of existance. The civil servants mostly come from wealthy backgrounds, do not care and have no clue as to how shit the lives of many of us is.
When enough peoples lives become as shit as mine we will see the people unite and fight for fair and just sociaty again. Until then we have to keep soaking up the evil shit they feed us!!