Seeing kids and spreading CSA payments

That would work i guess.
So long as the money is spent on the kids.

As i have said, i have two bugbears:

1. No requirement for money to be spent on the kids - in extremis, the entire amount could be used to buy heroin, while the kids rotted in unchanged nappies, and the CSA wouldn''t care

2. No recognition that commuting costs reduce a parent''s income, and the full amount of the commuting cost should be deductible. That is only fair because if the family were together, that family would still have to bear the cost

I believe the old scheme was more than jut the allowances described in the earlier post. Certainly the upper amount payable was significant.

EDIT: the scheme would work provided that it did not incentivize the woman to give up work or reduce her hours in the full knowledge that the income shortfall would be made up for by the father. This is one of the problems with spousal maintenance and one of the lies that some woman''s groups peddle. For instance, Shelter produced a report that said men''s incomes were restored within 5 years of divorce whereas a woman''s finances never recovered. However, they had chosen to use earnings, which were not representative of the tax credits and maintenance received by women. A more interesting fact was the increase in women opting to work part time, this being true not only with women with children, but also women exiting long marriages with spousal maintenance being demanded.

I say women because they are more likely to be the claimant and, i suppose, because it is socially more acceptble for a woman to work part time. I have no doubt that the same tricks are perpetuated by men.