Divorced Dads & kids & money

Like many Dads these days I'm divorced. Didn't suffer too much with the splitting of the assets. She got most of the contents and the house was split between us. Managed to keep my pension intact as well. The divorce is now ancient history but the children are not

What really hacks me off is the the financial deal us Dads get. This isn't another rant about the CSA. I'm OK with them. In fact, they are the ONLY part of the of the rant that gives me credit for being the Dad!

I still need to keep a 3 bed house going with food, heat and light . I need to clothe the children as you can't just keep them in the clothes they arrive in. I pay my equal share of school trips etc.

The CSA gives me 3/7 ths discount for the time I have the children. So why can't I have 3/7ths of the Child Benefit and child tax credit? It not as if the ex is poor. She has 2 new cars and owns property. Although it is an ex council house and she managed to secure it from the council by fraudulent means, but thats another story.

I feel for the dads who have ex's who block access to the children when they have been granted access. We do need a fairer system. I have had some fun and games with the ex with access but nothing as bad as some suffer. Access should start at 50% enforced by law. If one party , like a working Dad, cannot manage 50% then, through binding mediation, an agreed amount of access should be negotiated.

However, I have used the courts child service CAFCASS. It is so biased to the Mother its not true. My ex can be quite overbearing to the kids so I asked for the kids interview to be done on neutral ground away from BOTH parents. But alas they new better and did the interview at the mothers home so the children had to watch what they said. The Officer in charged then accused me of just wanting the children for financial reasons. as I was being exact in the access time I wanted. I did point out that time is measured in ,well time. How else? As it was was the changes I was after made no difference at all.

BUT being an old cynic until we can separate Government from the Legal profession nothing will change. Solicitors love all this fighting.

Did anyone else notice the huge increase in litigation and legal mumbojumbo since Cherie Blaire was in number 10 . I wonder what her pillow talk was like with Tony.

And as for Gordon........we'll see