FNF Newsletter 6th September 2018

Hello Visitor,

Welcome to our Newsletter update

In this issue:

As promised in the previous Newsletter we can share the detailed update on the meeting held with the minister responsible for child maintenance.
 

Thank you for your support.

With best wishes

Jerry Karlin

Chair and Managing Trustee

Meeting on Child Maintenance

Child Maintenence - Make Sure Your Voice is Heard!

Many of you will be aware from our previous communications, that the Government have been consulting on the introduction of new tougher sanctions for those who fail to pay their assessed Child Maintenance in full. These sanctions include confiscating passports, taking funds from joint accounts with new partners, docking money to be paid in benefits and, eventually, state pensions, etc. They also propose to alter the way they assess the amount due so as to include many forms of unearned income. The proposals include plans to write-off much of the historic Child Maintenance arrears, dating back over 20 years. We suspect that this may be the deeper reason for these proposals and that they feel the need to be seen to be tough whilst writing-off debt that is sitting on the books. Fuller details of plans are contained in this briefing for MPs can be found in the link here.

 

There has been an element of revolving doors with ministers in the role of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Family Support, Housing and Child Maintenance. Caroline Dinenage MP and then Kit Malthouse MP and now Justin Tomlinson MP have each held the role within the last year. We have met with all three ministers, the latest one last week. It does mean that ministers are likely to be following the views of the Treasury, points that best suit the department itself with strands of policy based on whose voices are politically the loudest. Justin Tomlinson MP has only been in the role since 9^th July 2018 so we were grateful for an early meeting with him. His previous experience has been working with people with disabilities.

 

In meeting with Justin Tomlinson MP, we found the minister in listening mode, perhaps rather more interested in how shared-care arrangements worked than in matters relating to affordability, other than that the thresholds for paying a % of income had not been reviewed for 20 years. On shared care, there was a sense of him trying to understand better why a 4/3 days a week split of time resulted in an assessment of CM of 4/7 of the full amount.

 

Read More

Could help to get an FNF meeting running?

Anyone want to help get a Swindon FNF meeting running?

 

We met with the minister responsible for Child Maintenence last week at his constituency office at the Orbital Shopping Park in Swindon. His office is shared a well-maintained professional community space conveniently located next to a substantial out-of-town shopping centre with ample car parking space and bus routes. The centre is available to charities to use for free. If anyone is interested in getting a local FNF meeting going, then it seems likely that Justin Tomlinson MP would be happy to support it and might even pop-in to see how things are going. If you are interested, please get in touch on admin@fnf.org.uk or call us on 0300 0300 110.

Retreat *Newsflash*

Best Way to Split Retreat – 14^th to 16^th September 2018

 

An FNF member has provided financial support to enable a number

of our members/service users to book this course at half price! 

 

 

If you would like to be put in the draw to attend this at half price then please register for the brochure here and email

suzy@startingovershow.com and let her know whether you are available for the full weekend and she will add you to the FNF prize draw.

 

 

No couples - this is 'me time'.

 

 

Media Enquiries

 

Celebrity Big Brother – a National Newspaper Looking for 'False Allegations' Stories

 

Following recent false allegations being made on Celebrity Big Brother, a national newspaper is looking for men who have been victims of false allegations of violence by women to talk about their experience. It is for a sensitive feature following the controversy in the Celebrity Big Brother house and aimed at showing the lasting effects such a false allegation can have. The person would need to be photographed and identified and available for a short phone interview on Friday, September 7th.

We appreciate this is a very sensitive issue and acknowledge that ongoing legal issues may mean it isn't possible to talk openly about this. Even if your family court case is over, you must consider any impact on your children of agreeing to appear in the media. 

If, however, these obstacles don’t apply to you then please contact Kate on 0787 292 1219  tomorrow morning.

In any case you may be interested to read the way we covered the story on Facebook here.

 

Housing and Shared Parenting in London

RDF Television (the makers of ‘Secret Life of 5 Year Olds’ and ‘Shop Well For Less’) are in the process of developing a non-transmittable ‘pilot’ for a major broadcaster which will be focusing on the varying difficulties faced by people living in London, including finding and having accommodation. They’d like to hear from a range of people on their opinions on having a lodger and whether this is something they may be willing to try, and take part in this project.

They are hosting a focus group in the format of a ‘Speed-Dating’ event where people considering renting out their room or lodging with others will come together to discuss and meet likeminded people. They are interested to hear how single parents or those who share ‘custody’ of their children manage living in London and what options they might explore in terms of living in London.

The event will be during the day (between 10am and 6pm) at a location in Islington, North London, on Thursday 20th September 2018. Expenses will be reimbursed.

If you are interested in attending and/or would like to know more about this project, please call Ellie from the Development team at RDF as soon as possible on 0207 013 4277 or email ellie.russell@rdftelevision.com.