CSA To Close

antrim | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis Saturday July 22, 2006 02:58 by The Arbiter - nipsa

THE CSA IS SET TO CLOSE DUE TO A HATCHET JOB BY SIR DAVID HENSHAW

CSA SET TO CLOSE !
I know this is something that a lot of people have been waiting for, and with good reason, but believe me what you will read in the press in the near future is only the tip of the Iceberg. The CSA, from its Tory inception, has been plodding along like some maimed Dinosaur, ready to be picked off by it’s smaller, carnivorous, counterparts. Indeed these counterparts are privately owned, profiteering, Debt Collection Agencies, that don’t give two f**ks about the alleviation of child poverty. These are the very DCA ‘s that are used by the CSA as part of their enforcement procedures against non-resident parents who refuse to pay for their children.
‘So what?’ I hear you ask, well it’s as simple as this, the staff have been commended on several occasions in parliament due to the fact, to quote a select committee report :

“The only thing that has kept it going is the quite extraordinary level of staff commitment although that too is now jeopardised by the uncertainty surrounding staff reductions.”

We have very little public support, I actually think we are as popular as traffic wardens (those hard working public servants).

It is management who have squandered over 1billion pounds of tax payers money on a system that just doesn’t work! One former chief executive of the CSA has even commented that it was criminal what managers have done and should have faced prosecution due to the unbelievable waste of public money.

The only thing the ordinary staff can ask for….no plead for is your support as we face closure. This is due to a report, commissioned by Downing street, by Sir David Henshaw a private sector hatchet man who has been reportedly paid £900 a day for his services.
These are our jobs, all 1800 staff, this is our future, who will be next for the chop???