The quotes provided are normally directly from the original article,
but typically whole sentences and paragraphs are omitted, often without
indicating where the omission is, but without altering the order of presentation.
In some cases people's names are removed, and replaced thus "[X]".
Date & reference |
Extracts (not necessarily contiguous) |
1994-01-19
The Daily Express
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
The controversial Child Support Agency came under fresh fire last
night after another family tragedy. Mother-of-two [X] was stabbed
to death and her estranged husband [Y] tried to kill himself. Detectives
questioning him at his hospital bedside yesterday wanted to know
if the drama was linked in any way with a massive maintenance demand
he had received from the CSA 24 hours earlier.
Ken Mayo, of the National campaign for Fair Maintenance, said:
"The Government must act, Ministers are presiding over a growing
catalogue of tragedy. The CSA should be renamed the Child Orphaning
Agency. Thousands of people in second marriages are being driven
to the edge by it." Mr [Y], married for 20 years, left his
wife after an affair five months ago. His mother said: "They
were getting divorced." His close friend [Z] added: "He
would go to the end of the earth for his children. There was never
any question of him abandoning them so I dont understand why
the CSA was chasing him."
|
1994-03-25
The Daily Express
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
So far five fathers have committed suicide because they could not
afford to pay huge demands, say protesters. The latest victim was
35-year-old [A] who was found hanged in his council house in Rutherglen,
Glasgow, on Saturday.
He had been told to hand over all but £12 of his £39.90
unemployment and sickness benefit to support his two young children.
Mr [A]s brother, [B], 39, said: "It is all because he
was hounded by the CSA."
|
1994-03-25
The Daily Express
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
[C], a 38-year-old technician, gassed himself in his car in Sunderland
when he was unable to afford new agency demands. His father [D]
branded the CSA a disgrace.
|
1994-03-25
The Daily Express
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
A 37-year-old civilian working with Humberside police was found
dead in his car shortly after the CSA contacted him. A hose pipe
was attached to the exhaust. His mother, Mrs [E], 56, said: "He
had been having terrible trouble with the CSA. He told me they were
trying to take very penny."
|
1994-04-29
Today
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
A young father hanged himself after the Child Support Agency said
his maintenance payments were to be trebled, an inquest heard yesterday.
A CSA letter found at the flat of [X] said his £10 a week
voluntary payment was going up to £27.75 and there
were arrears of £578.
West Somerset coroner Michael Rose said the letter would have had
a frightening effect on the 23-year-old computer operator. He is
to make representations to the agency, after hearing
how Mr [X] was later reassessed to pay ex-girlfriend [Y] only £12.85
a week for their four-year-old daughter [Z]. Recording a verdict
of suicide, the Coroner said: "I cant help wondering
whether I would be sitting here today if the right figures had been
arrived at earlier."
|
1994-05-07
The Daily Mirror
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
A verdict of suicide was recorded in November on Birmingham prison
worker, [X]. In May of this year [X] received a CSA demand for £2,500
maintenance arrears and shortly afterwards he took an overdose of
sleeping tablets. At the inquest his brave mother, Mrs [Y], said:
"... the letter from the CSA was on the top of the pile of
suicide notes. I feel very bitter."
John Spellar MP (Labour, Warley West) said: "The CSA appears
to have no understanding of the devastating effect that massive
demands for arrears can have."
|
1994-05-18
The Daily Mail
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
A coroner blamed a mistake by the CSA yesterday for triggering
a fathers death from an overdose of drink and drugs. A maintenance
demand for £3,000 three times higher than it should
have been was found beside the body of hospital nurse [X],
55. "It was the letter that proved the trigger that led to
his death," said coroner David Wadman, who recorded a suicide
verdict. "It is a sorry state of affairs. Had the true situation
been put to him, who knows what would have been?"
Mauritius-born Mr [X] had split from his wife [Y], a GPs
receptionist, but they agreed not to involve the CSA as he paid
£9,000-a-year for the private education of his nine-year-old
son and daughter of 13, an inquest heard at Eastbourne, Sussex.
The CSA became involved when Mrs [Y] was unemployed for two months
and claimed income support. CSA official Colin Oudot said the agency
was not required to take into account Mr [X]s contribution
for schooling. The letter was generated by computer and sent out
automatically but should have demanded only £1,000
|
1994-05-29
The Independent
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
[X], an engineer from Longthorpe in Gloucestershire apparently
decided he could take no more, having received the usual pay
up or else threatening letters from the CSA. Its reported
that he wired up his wrists to a high voltage circuit, threw a switch
and electrocuted himself.
|
1994-08-04
The Daily Telegraph
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
A married executive who was secretly paying maintenance for an
illegitimate baby killed himself after receiving a letter from the
Child Support Agency and fearing he was about to be exposed, a Southampton
inquest heard yesterday. On the day he received the letter, he sought
immediate legal advice on the payments and whether he could keep
the matter from his wife. But when he was told that all other CSA
documents would be sent to his home, he told a trainee legal executive:
"Maybe I should commit suicide."
|
1994-09-06
The Independent
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
A loving husband died in his fume-filled car after he was forced
to leave his second wife because of demands from the Child Support
Agency, an inquest heard yesterday. The inquest at Cannock, Staffs,
was told that Mr [X], 34, formerly of Coalpit Lane, Brereton, Staffs,
became depressed after the CSA started to investigate his affairs
and bombarded him with letters about his first wife. He was found
dead in his car surrounded by letters from the CSA. A hose pipe
led from the exhaust into the vehicle.
His second wife, Mrs [Y], said in a statement that she and her
husband had enjoyed a happy marriage until he started to receive
letters from the CSA about nine weeks before his death. The letters
had worried and depressed him. Mr Reginald Browning, the South Staffordshire
Coroner, recorded an open verdict after being told that Mr [X] had
appeared to be his usual self shortly before his death. Mr Browning
said there was no evidence as to what was in his mind at the time.
|
1994-09-03
The Daily Telegraph
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
Miss [X], 30, a business studies student of Cheadle, Staffs, died
from a drugs overdose in July 1994. Mr [Y], her common-law husband,
blamed the CSA for hounding him. He said: " She seemed to blame
herself for our problem because she was not out earning money."
|
1994-09-19
The Times
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
Detective Constable [X], married and aged 31, strangled his seven
months pregnant mistress, [Y] and then gassed himself in his own
car. According to reports the tragedy occurred following Ms [Y]s
threat to contact the CSA after the baby was born. Later DNA testing
revealed that [X] was not in fact the father of the child. This
is believed to be the second occasion where murder (or at least
attempted murder) and a suicide have occurred simultaneously as
a result of threatened CSA involvement.
|
1994-10-??
Evening Argus
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
A hard-up father worried about the Child Support Agency was found
dead at a Sussex beauty spot, an inquest heard. [X] was found floating
in a pool along the Cuckoo Trail, a mile from his terraced house
in Harebeating Drive, Horsebridge, near Hailsham.
A postmortem showed he probably drowned. Mr [X]s brother,
[Y], of Howlett Drive, Hailsham, said the unemployed builder was
worried about a letter he had received from the Child Support Agency
in April. But at the time of his death on October 25 the agency
had dropped the maintenance request and he owed no money. Mr [Y]
said: "Hed been divorced for 15 years and had a daughter.
A few months before he had received a letter from the CSA. He was
worried about it. He was also worried about his health and was convinced
he was dying. There was nothing wrong with him as far as I knew.
He had met a girl and was happy. He had used all his savings and
was worried about that."
|
1994-10-28
The Daily Mail
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
A fireman involved in a long and bitter dispute with the Child
Support Agency has been found hanged. Close friend [X], 52, said
Mr [Y] had told him payments to his ex-wife, by whom he had a ten-year-old
son, had trebled to £90 a week since the CSA had become involved.
It is understood that at a divorce hearing last week Mr [Y] was
ordered to pay a total of £50,000 in maintenance although
it is not known at what rate this is to be paid. Another friend
said: "With everything that had gone on with the CSA, the court
case was the last straw. He had put his house up for sale to try
to pay the money."
|
1994-11-03
The Electronic Telegraph
CSA
urged to accept clean-break agreements
By Julie Kirkbride, Political Staff
|
FATHERS who made "clean-break" settlements with their
wives before the start of the Child Support Agency should have their
maintenance payments reduced, an MPs' report said yesterday. The
proposal would ease the burden on about 50,000 men on middle incomes
who settled with their partners by handing over property in lieu
of maintenance.
It is one of the key recommendations in the Social Security Select
Committee's report. The report further proposed that the maintenance
formula should also take account of travel-to-work costs of the
absent parent and that step-children in a father's second family
should be included when assessing maintenance payments to the first.
However, it also said that two ways in which absent parents could
seek to pay less should be barred. First, assessments of the self-employed
should be made on last year's tax returns to avoid the present situation
where some could avoid liability for maintenance altogether. Second,
standard housing allowances by region should be introduced so that
housing costs could not be inflated to reduce liability.
|
1994-11-25
The Independent
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
[X], father of a three-year-old boy, was found dead in a fume-filled
car shortly after receiving cash demands from the CSA. [X], aged
23 from Sandwell Valley, West Bromwich told his girlfriend, [Y],
that the agency could "stuff the money". He went on a
two-day spending spree and then killed himself.
|
1994-12-17
Cambridgeshire Town Crier
(From NACSA
BOTD)
|
A man found hanging in the Coneygeare area of Eynesbury last month
killed himself while suffering from depression. An inquest at Huntingdon
on Tuesday was told that at the time of his death he was divorcing
his wife and had debts to clear.
He was also receiving letters from the Child Support Agency. Mr
[X] had been married twice before and had three children. His girlfriend,
[Y], said: "He was always kind but in the last few weeks he
had been quiet and had been ignoring letters from the CSA. His biggest
problem was with his children. He always wanted to do the right
thing by them but he was constantly battling with red tape.
Why could the CSA not see that?"
|
1994-12-21
The Electronic Telegraph
Child
agency shelves third of its cases
By Jon Hibbs, Political Staff
|
THE Child Support Agency is to shelve indefinitely the pursuit
of some 350,000 fathers in an attempt to cope with its growing backlog.
It has decided to postpone cases involving mothers caring for children
who were receiving income support before April 1993, when the agency
started work. Pursuit of those mothers who have not co-operated
in assessing absent fathers' liability will also be suspended. Although
the agency reserved the right to resume attempts to track down those
absent fathers given a temporary reprieve, the expectation at Westminster
last night was that it would prove to be long-lasting. Officials
could give no date for the resumption of investigations, confirming
that about one-third of all the cases already identified by the
CSA will be put on the shelf until it has sorted out a more efficient
way of processing the new cases brought to its attention.
It was the latest embarrassment for an organisation that has been
dogged by controversy throughout its first 18 months. MPs of all
parties say their mailbags have been inundated with complaints about
the agency and the financial demands made on separated fathers who
may have second families to support.
|
1994-12-22
The Electronic Telegraph
Ministers
line up New Year reforms for child agency
By Philip Johnston, Political Correspondent
|
FURTHER reforms of the Child Support Agency are to be introduced
in the New Year as the Government seeks to contain the crisis besetting
the troubled operation. Ministers have not yet agreed which of the
proposed reforms should be adopted. But measures are being drawn
up in the Social Security department with the aim of finally resolving
the agency's difficulties. Mr Peter Lilley, the Social Security
Secretary, has told officials to ensure that the next round of changes
address all the key issues. An announcement is expected before the
end of next month.
Confirmation that additional changes are in the pipeline came as
the Government faced renewed criticism over the CSA's decision to
shelve one-third of its cases against fathers while it deals with
a huge backlog of work. Labour said the CSA - which is to postpone
some 350,000 cases - was in terminal chaos. Mr Donald Dewar, party
spokesman, said he was "flabbergasted" by the move. It
was "a panic measure of the worst sort".
|