At the turn of the year the site commented on its despair at the actions, in-actions and u-turns of the Coalition Government on equality issues for men. A lot of this is because it has been driven by the Ministers for Equalities and Minister for Women.
The one area where there still remained a flicker of hope was the fact the government remained committed to reviewing family law and the way that family courts and other institutions operated. This is helped by the fact that 'the family' remains a central construct in Conservative ideology (less so for the Lib Dems though John Hemmings MP has been active).
In the Coalition agreement it stated: We will conduct a comprehensive review of family law in order to increase the use of mediation when couples do break up, and to look at how best to provide greater access rights to non-resident parents and grandparents.
Whilst that review remains ongoing, they have just launched a separate consultation on the future of child maintenance - a system riddled with anti-father bias and unfairness.
One of the biggest injustices in overall family law system has been the disconnection between child maintenace and access - where a father is denied access to their children despite court orders and agreements but still the CSA and now CMEC continue to demand (with menaces) the maintenance payments. These issues have been dealt with in a silo.
It has meant mothers who flout the law are still rewarded by the CSA/CMEC - a morally corrupt situation especially made worse by the family courts failing to 'punish' mothers who ignore court orders. Mothers in this situation are gaming the system because policymakers have never made the connection between child maintenance and access.
This has also been enhanced because fathers recognise and worry about the consequences of withhloding payments on their children and recalcitrant mothers play on this as well.
Welcome news has been received today though that this now being looked at in the round as the Family Justice Review team have said:
As part of the [child maintenance green paper], DWP have asked us to look at the extent to which decisions on maintenance or contact should have a bearing on each other – alongside our emerging proposals for whole-system reform.The full proposal is laid out in the Green Paper as follows:
We know that one of the most significant issues for non-resident parents is when contact with their children is denied or withheld. This can lead to tension and hostility between the parents, especially where maintenance is still being collected through the statutory system.
We are keen to explore approaches that allow maintenance arrangements to be considered in the round when determining appropriate contact enforcement measures. We recognise, however, that there are challenges in linking maintenance and contact in this way, most importantly how such decisions might impact on the best interests of the child. We also recognise that it is important that this issue is considered within the context of wider reforms that are currently being progressed elsewhere in government. We have therefore requested that the Family Justice Review consider this issue as part of its wider work in developing options for reform of the Family Justice System.
I am aware that you may have an opinion on this issue, but might not have addressed it in your evidence to the Review. We plan to set out the issues and invite further views on this in our interim report, to be published at the end of March.
If, however, you want to pass on any immediate comments on this proposal for our consideration ahead of this, we would be grateful to receive these by Friday 4 February.Please submit any evidence to: [email protected]
This is extremely encouraging news because it means a joined-up government approach and the review on family law is a root and branch review.
Not only does it mean the prospect of shared parenting is on the horizon but also that there may be justice and equality with regards to child maintenance as well.
Let us hope that those mothers who purposely deny their child(ren) the chance to maintain a meaningful relationship with their fathers, despite court agreements, no longer are allowed to sit at home counting the cash he is still forced to send through.
All is asked for is moral and legal justice in a supposedly civilised country.
Posted by Skimmington
We are a law firm that focuses exclusively on the enforcement of child and spousal support orders, Law office is specialist in child support collections and orders
Posted by: child support collections | Thursday, 22 September 2011 at 08:42