Grant Atthowe Bunbury W.A.

Grant Atthowe Sperm Donor of 4 children and DeadBeat Dad from Bunbury

http://www.freewebs.com/grunter1/index.htm

http://www.facebook.com/people/Grant-Atthowe/632053582

Wrote this letter to complain about paying Child Support for 4 children.


16^th August 2007

The Honorable Minister for Families

Mr. Mal Brough

Dear Sir,

My name is Grant Atthowe and I am writing to you to get answers to my predicament. I am a divorced father of 4 children, 3 from my marriage and 1 from an unsavory affair (which you can read about in another file). Since all of this occurred I have been struggling to keep up to all of my commitments to the point of driving myself further into debt. I tried, through the C.S.A’s objection process, to work out a more equitable way for me to handle things and basically was told that everything I was telling them about my expenses were day to day things that everyone has to pay for. The difference is, not everybody is paying out in excess of $300.00 per week in child support.

Here we go then, question time.
1.Why is child support calculated on a person’s gross wage?
2.Why does there have to be a 15% difference between last years income to a projected income to qualify for a reduction in child support?
3.Why does the appeals process not work?
4.Why don’t you go after every non paying parent with the same voracity as you do an existing customer?
5.How is a person supposed to get on with their lives when they are being penalized so unjustly?

I probably have more but these will suffice for the time being. Listed below is an actual picture of my present circumstances. What I want to know is how I am supposed to live? Can you tell me how to fund all this, without breaking the rules?

My wages work on an 8 week cycle. I only have 7 weeks worth of actual figures but will include an estimation for week 8. Expenditure includes child support payable on one case, mortgage on the family home in which my ex wife resides and my rent. The other child support is deducted direct from my wages. Out of the remaining I am to provide food for myself and my 3 kids who stay with me on days off, fuel, gas, electricity and communications services.

Nett Income Expenditure Amount Remaining

$615.30 $600.33 $14.97

$613.78 $600.33 $13.45

$671.45 $600.33 $71.12

$475.50 $600.33 $124.83-

$636.23 $600.33 $35.90

$660.44 $600.33 $60.11

$590.45 $600.33 $9.88-

$680.00E $600.33 $79.67

Not a pretty picture is it. How one manages is by doing the following. By transferring money to a credit card, used primarily to pay bills and fund purchases, not paying some things by the due date, not paying the child support to my ex I can still do the basics. I get a small stipend from the Family Assistance office, around $125 per fortnight, $40 dollars of which goes to gas and electricity.

In the past I have resorted to doing overtime at work to pay for all this. Problem is, the more money I earn the more C.S.A takes away. I am forced to pay an amount of money based on my gross taxable income yet I am expected to pay this out of my nett disposable income. What sort of backhanded logic is that?

This is the expected child support and percentages based on a rounded income figure of $67,000.00 (approx what I earned last year) with $19,000.00 tax. Amounts are broken down into the following order, percentage, yearly and weekly.

C.S.A. case 1 10.85% $ 7,269.50 $139.79

C.S.A. case 2 19.00% $12,730.00 $244.80

If this calculation was based on my nett income it would be as follows.

C.S.A. case 1 10.85% $ 5,208.00 $100.15

C.S.A. case 2 19.00% $ 9,120.00 $175.38

A calculator will tell you that makes a difference to my disposable income of $109.06 per week. Add that to what I have left over in the previous table and you can see that whilst still not pretty, it’s at least a manageable situation.

I have recently done an estimation of income with C.S.A. which has forced me into the situation of not doing any overtime this financial year as it will only cost more in the following year. Until the legislation is looked at seriously to reflect the circumstances in the real world then I will have no option but to either not do overtime, bankrupt myself and hence become unemployed or quit work, go into the unemployment system and defraud the system somehow so I can have a life. Now I know that will raise a red flag but, seriously, if your office was so keen to get it right, you would be chasing down the hardcore deadbeats that have been rorting the system for years. I at the very least have tried my bum off to do the right thing to support my kids and won’t stop now just because of an unfair, unrealistic and draconian system devised by morons who really have no concept of what reality is.

It’s all very well to make these rules but please, for pities sake, have a look at the side effects. It is little wonder paying parents, mostly men, don’t do the right thing, some are pushed to abandon their children and go underground, much as my father did when I was young, thus depriving both the children and themselves of each other, some are even pushed to suicide because it just becomes so damn hard that you can’t see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The dissolution of relationships between adults is catastrophic enough as it is and both parties, when issues are finally resolved, have the right and, dare I say it, an obligation to themselves and their children to move forward. This can only benefit children involved if they can understand that whilst mum and dad are no longer together, they are at least happy with their lot and there are no lingering problems that affect their relationships with each other.

This brings to mind the other issue I referred to. It is obvious by media reports that we are heading to a potential situation where unprincipled women, possibly attracted by the federal governments baby bonus, are having children with men they have no intentions of staying with and thus depriving these children of the opportunity to have a father figure in their lives while all the time taking the money with great delight from these poor bastards whose lives are then effectively ruined for the next 18 to 20 years. These days you get less for manslaughter. I don’t think this was the concept behind the treasurer’s request for people to have more babies. And before you respond, yes everyone has to take some responsibility for the child but, if it can be proven that there was never any intention of a good faith commitment to ensure the child had the benefit of a two parent influence from the outset, then some sort of appropriate measures have to be devised that make the woman in question accountable, not deprive the child and not unnecessarily impact on the male involved to his detriment.

I apologize for the longwinded nature of this letter but I need you to understand the whole picture both emotionally and financially, to get an idea of the fact that these are probably not my thoughts but the same emotions being felt by thousands of other people out there in every electorate. All I want is a system that is just and fair for all concerned mums, dads and children. I am positive that with the enormous resources available to you that some sort of system can be devised that works for all.

Thanking you in advance for your time and looking forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

Grant Atthowe

NB It has recently come to my attention that the woman involved in the 'unsavoury affair' has taken up with her ex boyfriend (one she dumped so she could get pregnant to me) again and from what I understand she has been seeing him for some time.