The pages below do not include the pages identified by the buttons on the right.

Site map - starting at "Information and explanation" below
Site map - starting at "Analysis and opinion" below
Site map - starting at "Other material" below
Site map - starting at "This weblog & website" below

Introduction to the CSA

Glossary of Terms
Introduction to the UK's CSA

Information sources

Links to useful web sites
Books & one-off papers
Periodic and occasional publications
Newsgroups and forums

News articles about the CSA

News articles about the CSA - index and commentary
News articles about the CSA - latest additions
[ 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 Q1 - 1999 Q2 - 1999 Q3 - 1999 Q4 | 2000 H1 - 2000 H2 | 2001 H1 - 2001 H2 | 2002 H1 | 2002 H2 | 2003 ]

The legislation on-line

Current system
1991 & 1995 Acts - section names & links to full text of Acts
1991 & 1995 Acts - links to full text of Statutory Instruments
1991 & 1995 Acts - links to full text of Northern Ireland Statutory Rules
1991 & 1995 Acts - links to full text of Scottish Statutory Instruments

Reformed system
2000 Act - sections, links to the text & dates
2000 Act - links to full text of Statutory Instruments
2000 Act - links to full text of Northern Ireland Statutory Rules
2000 Act - links to full text of Scottish Statutory Instruments

Arrangements with other countries
Reciprocal arrangements with other countries

Other laws
Acts & Regulations for paternity testing

The CSA and its computer systems

The CSA and its computer systems - summary
Parliament and the current computer system
Parliament and the new computer system
News articles about the current computer system
News articles about the new computer system
EDS - Electronic Data Systems

Explanation of the legislation of the reformed system

Description of the reformed system
Index: the reformed child support system
A bit of history of child support
The reform process
The timetable for the reforms
The basics of the new formula
The effect of benefits & tax credits
Penalties and default liabilities
How partners are handled in the reformed system
Presuming and establishing paternity
Variations (the new name for departures)

Discussion
2000 Act - sex discrimination in the child support law
2000 Act - Variations - NRPs' new partners

The process of reforming the CSA legislation
Implications of the announcement of commencement
Questions still to be answered
Quick history of the programme to reform the CSA
The stages of the reform to the CSA legislation
Summary of the changes in the reformed system

Child support across the world and across the centuries

Child support systems across the world
Child support systems across the world
Objectives of child support across nations & centuries
Links to international sources about child support
Links to special interest groups worldwide
Declarations, treaties, conventions, etc
Clues about child maintenance in some Muslim cultures
PICSLT - Project for the Improvement of Child Support Litigation Technology
International conspiracy theories

History of child support across the world
History of child support across the world
History of child support in the UK
History of child support in the USA
History of child support in some mainly-English-speaking countries
History of child support in some (non-UK) European countries
Comparisons across some mainly-English-speaking countries
Comparisons across some European countries

Declarations of human rights
Declarations of human rights
Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights
Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam
Islamophobia and its mirror

Newsgroup - uk.gov.agency.csa

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions - questions & answers (the pages providing the answers are not listed in this site map)
Frequently Asked Questions - as posted to the newsgroup

Debate
Newsgroup debate (1998) on the future of the CSA
Debate (1998) - "A chance to debate the future"
Debate (1998) - Some observations from the DEBATE
Debate (1998) - Some conclusions from the DEBATE

Social Security links & uk.gov.social-security newsgroup

Social Security information - index
Summary of organisations administering Social Security
Links to resources about claiming benefits & tax credits
Links concerned with gaining & improving employment
Links concerned with Social Security law
Links concerned with government plans for Social Security
Links to Social Security administration & philosophy
Links concerning overseas Social Security
Links to general Social Security resources
Parliament & Social Security
Links to regional resources about Social Security
Links to academic sources about Social Security

Discussions of some basic principles

Stakeholders in Child Support
Examples of Rights & Responsibilities
Do both parents pay under the reformed scheme?
NRP incomes and the new formula
The domino effect - chains of child support
Lost opportunity costs & child support
The most administratively incompetent government agency in living memory
The formula for 2nd family children

Child Support Agenda for the 21st Century

Child Support Agenda for the 21st Century

Specific proposals in the Agenda for the 21st Century
Parents should have equal status by default
Partners should know about paternity
All children should have been accepted children
Eliminate sex discrimination from child support
There should be no Treasury saving or state compulsion
Child support should be formally awarded to the children
Use a formula to determine the amount
Have closer ties between child support administration and family courts
Use a symmetrical formula that treats both parents similarly
Household benefits/credits should not be treated as income
Amounts should relate to spend on children, not wealth

Other topics
Exclusions from the Agenda for the 21st Century
A method of judging proposals
International Agenda for the 21st Century

Looking beyond the reformed scheme

Challenging questions
Expansions to challenging questions
The Beneficiary of Child Support
Escaping from the social security & civil service models
SSSC report & government response
Can Child Support Agencies ever work?

The cost of children

"The cost of children" - overview and summary
Categories of expenditure on children
Results from the "Small Fortunes" research
Results from the Family Budget Unit
Results from "The Costs of Children and the Welfare State"
Results from "Measuring the Cost of Children: Estimates for Britain"
Results from "1999-2000 Family Expenditure Survey"
Results from "Pregnancy & birth" magazine, March 2001
What the government is prepared to pay for children in benefits & tax credits
The "cost of children" references
The cost of children in other nations

Comparisons - "current versus reformed" & various cases

Reasoning for the presentation style used here
Comparisons based on the number of qualifying children
Comparisons based on housing costs
Marginal increases in liability as net income increases
Marginal increases in total deductions as gross income increases

Children "sharing in the wealth of their parents"

Does it make sense for children to share the wealth of their parents?
Sharing wealth and the "Small Fortunes" research
Sharing wealth with the Treasury
How could and should wealth be shared?

Shared Care & the child support formula

Child support & Shared Care - overview
Should child support be linked to access?
The "Fair Shares" formula (copy of Hansard)
Issues with the "Shared Care" formula (1998)

Case studies - faults in "shared care" in the reformed scheme
Case Studies - anomalies in the reformed shared-care formula
Case study 1 - Two separated parents earn the same and share care 4:3
Case study 2 - Two rich parents share care equally
Case study 3 - The NRP is on benefits and the PWC earns
Case study 4 - Both parents earn the same low pay and share care equally
Case study 5 - Two separated parents earn the same and share care 5:2
Case study 6 - Both parents are on benefits and share care
Case study 7 - Difference between the way the CSA Reforms deal with equal split care and equal shared care

NRP's household claiming WFTC

Problems when the NRP's household claims Working Families Tax Credit
Should Working Families Tax Credit be included as NRP's net income?
Suggested alternative to treating tax credits as NRP's income

Case studies - anomalies in the treatment of NRP's tax credits
Case study 1 - Removing the incentive for the NRP to work
Case study 2 - Bizarre child support changes as the new partner's income changes
Case study 3 - No incentive for the NRP to earn more

Experiences with the new scheme

Premature conversion example

Evaluation of the reformed scheme

Natural rate of conversion to the new rules
The political drivers of the reformed scheme
The origin of the percentages in the reformed scheme
The 21st Century is making the reformed scheme obsolete
Will the reformed scheme achieve its objectives?

Political & Treasury involvement

Protecting taxpayers' interests
The old-fashioned paradigm
The constraint of Treasury neutrality
Flaws with treating "administrative ease" with priority

Lobbying to improve child support

NACSA is dead - long live NACSA Ltd!
The need for a lobby group
NACSA for the 21st Century?
Suicide and the CSA

Male contraception

Advances in male contraception - overview
Markets for new generations of male contraception
More information & references for male contraception
The politics (sexual & otherwise) of male contraception

Paternity issues

Paternity testing :
Parentage, especially paternity
Misattributed paternity rates and non-paternity rates
Paternity test statistics don't show the rate of paternity fraud
Paternity testing and Islam
Paternity fraud
Paternity tests for peace of mind
Some links to paternity testing services
Paternity testing fallacies
Children's rights

Paternity commentaries :
Paternity commentaries - index
Commentary: Leslie Cannold & "Paternity denied"
Commentary: Leslie Cannold & "Paternal instinct"
Commentary: Leslie Cannold & "Paternally yours"
Commentary: Lyn Turney & "Contested Paternity"
Commentary: Lyn Turney & "DNA Paternity Testing"
Commentary: Michael Gilding & "Rampant misattributed paternity"
Commentary: Michael Gilding & "Motherless testing"

Infidelity testing :
Infidelity testing - technologies and services

Earlier material:
Wives & female partners who "conceive away"
Child Support & Paternity Establishment & the Genome Project

"Choice For Men" (C4M), also know as "male abortion"

"Choice For Men" (C4M) - overview
"Choice For Men" (C4M or "male abortion") - more details
Commentary on the C4M FAQ
The politics of "Choice For Men" in the UK
An aiming point for the future "Beyond C4M"
Reproductive trends for never-together men & women
"Scenario 1" - what should the law be in this case?

Law - compliance and incentives

Justice versus Social Engineering
Lesson from "Sun Tzu on The Art of War"

Guest papers on this web site

Only the title pages of papers are linked here - each title page has a contents list.
Identifying the Cause of the Child Support Agency's Problems by G Bates, D Hutchinson, T Robertson, A Wadsworth, R Watson (2002)
Child Support: A Comparison of the Old and New Approaches by Susan Grace Jenkinson (2001)
The Liability To Maintain And The Child Support Act: A Reference Paper by Peter Snow (1998)
The Child Support Act And The Filius Nullius: The Illegitimate Child by Peter Snow (1994)

Personal papers on this web site

Only the title pages of papers are linked here - each title page has a contents list.
"A matter of opinion" - Unofficial paternity tests and the impacts on children by Barry Pearson (2003)
What is the crime if men seek confirmation that children are theirs? by Barry Pearson (2003)
"Premature conversion to the new CSA scheme - A loophole that may thwart government policy" by Barry Pearson (2003)
"Child Support should be for Children" - A proposal for reform by Barry Pearson (2002)
"The truth is out there" - Commentary on "Move to outlaw secret DNA testing by fathers" by Barry Pearson (2002)
Knowledge is bliss - Towards a society without paternity surprises by Barry Pearson (2002)
A Fair Shared-Care Formula for Child Support by Barry Pearson (1999)
"Children First" & Second Family Children: Analysis of the issues and options by Barry Pearson (1998)
"Children First" & Sharing of Care: Problems with the proposed formula, and a revised proposal by Barry Pearson (1998)

Correspondence

From politicians, etc
Letter from Frank Field, MP (Labour) (September 2005)
Letter from Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Conservative spokesperson (September 2005)
Letter from Doug Smith, CEO of the CSA (March 2003)
Letter from Baroness Hollis, Minister for Child Support (etc) (August 2002)
Letter from Steve Webb, Liberal Democrats Spokesperson (July 2002)
Letter from Paul Russell, Ministerial Correspondence Unit (July 2002)
Commentary on the letter from Paul Russell, Ministerial Correspondence Unit by Barry Pearson (March 2003)
Response on "sexual offences", from Andrew Stunell MP (+ original request) (November 2002, January 2003)
Letter from Baroness Hollis, Minister for Child Support (etc) (October 1999)
Commentary on the October 1999 letter from Baroness Hollis by Barry Pearson (July 2002)

To politicians
Covering letter to Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Conservative spokesman (September 2005)
Covering letter to David Laws, Liberal Democrats spokesman (September 2005)
Covering letter to David Blunkett, SoS for the DWP (September 2005)
Covering letter to Doug Smith, CEO of the CSA (February 2003)
Covering letter to Baroness Hollis, Minister for Child Support (etc) (February 2003)
Letter to Mr Malcolm Wicks, DWP minister (May 2002)
Letter to Dr. Phyllis Starkey, MP (May 2002)

Under Freedom of Information Act
Letter from Immigration and Nationality Directorate, paternity testing (+ original request) (July 2005)
Letter from Her Majesty's Courts Service, paternity testing (+ original request) (August 2005)
Letter from the CSA, paternity testing (+ original request) (August 2005)
Letter from the NI CSA, paternity testing (+ original request) (September 2005)
Letter from the CSA, paternity testing disputes (+ original request) (September 2005)

With other interested parties
Response to: "What Child Support System should we have?" from Mike Smith of Durham Legal Services (August 2001)
Letter from Neale Sheldon of Staffordshire Anti-CSA Group (August 2001)
"Corners" from Martin Davies (August 2001)
Collected thoughts on "Reform" from "Jimbo" (August 2001)

Transcripts

BBC News 24 "Agenda" - 2nd March 2003 "CSA Reforms"
Commentary - BBC News 24 "Agenda" - 2nd March 2003 "CSA Reforms"
Parliament - Social Security Select Committee - 15th September 1999

This web site

Child Support Analysis
Religion
Linking to this web site
Accessibility features of this web site
Barry Pearson

Contributing to this web site

Who can contribute?
Style guidelines

History of this web site

Site history for 2001 & 2002 ("pre-blog")
Blog summary & archive for 2003
Blog summary & archive for 2004
Blog summary & archive for 2005