Tsunami travesty
In December 2004 thousands of families were left devastated by the tsunami disaster.
However, for one parent it provided an ideal opportunity to evade his child maintenance responsibilities, with his new partner informing the CSA that he had died in the disaster. The CSA followed up the case and discovered the parent alive, well and working. A deductions from earnings order (DEO) was issued which obliges the employer to take the child maintenance payments plus an extra amount if there are arrears from their earnings. Having issued the DEO, the parent left employment and the CSA was no longer able to trace him.
As a result of the CSA's work with specialist trace agencies, it will now be more difficult for non-payers to 'disappear'.
