Bessy Cow is pissed off, and so she should be:

My horns are burning red hot, but I wonder what the point is. It’s a well worn path, one that many parents would know; Dealing with the Child Support Agency.

Ever since my divorce, I’ve been paying child support, and I don’t have an issue with paying money to support my children, but how can I support them, when I can’t even support myself? Recently I spent 9 months being homeless, simply so I could get into a position of paying off debt, that would allow me to put a roof over my head, and to keep that head above water. Cows are not very good swimmers, so the sacrifice was made, as a short term loss for long term gain. It allowed me to be able to afford board (at a very generous rate) and gave me $20 a day to live on for all those little things life food, clothing, petrol. I’m sure you will all agree, hardly living it large, but at least I had the basics and it was better than the alternative.

Then last week, when I picked up my pay cheque, I noticed it was down, and I mean down by a lot. When you are living with every cent having to count, it’s not an easy blow to take. Looking though the breakdown, I saw that child support had been increased by 40%, an increase that would leave me short by $87.40 each week, provided I stopped having my car serviced, or pay rego on it. In other words, my outgoings are now greater than my income. Thanks to the CSA, my options are to run up a debt on a credit card, stop eating, or to move back to homelessness. Not really good choices to have.

So I went and saw the CSA, and was there for a couple of hours. I answered all their questions honestly, I filled in all the paperwork correctly, I did everything they asked, and still there was nothing they could do about it, because the system said I could afford it, even though the figures were quite clearly in the red, they still said I could afford it. How is that even possible?

My options now are pretty clear. I have to eat to live, I need a car to get to work to earn an income, I can use that car to live in. I tried to keep my head above water, but the CSA could see that and dumped an ocean of water on me again. Well done CSA, great work there, the system works. Once again you have managed to punish the paying parent, not just financially, but physically and mentally. How exactly does that benefit the children?