Fathers United. Rights Respected. The current child maintenance system is broken: and we all know it. While dads are bled dry paying maintenance for children they barely see, a revolutionary solution sits right in front of us. It's time to demand true equality: 50/50 parenting with shared financial responsibility and zero exploitation.
The Current System is Designed to Profit from Broken Families
Let's be brutally honest about what's happening. The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) isn't just collecting money: it's running a multi-million pound business built on family breakdown. Every maintenance payment processed generates administrative fees. Every enforcement action creates revenue streams. The state has a vested interest in keeping this broken system running because your family's dysfunction pays their bills.
Meanwhile, mothers who've mastered the system know exactly how to play it. Get the kids most of the time? Maintenance payments. Claim they're struggling financially? Housing benefits and grants. Refuse to update their claims when fathers get more access? More money keeps rolling in. The system rewards exploitation and punishes fathers who fight for equal parenting time.
A Revolutionary Alternative: True 50/50 Equality
Here's the solution that would transform everything: and exactly why the current system will fight it tooth and nail:
If parents share genuine 50/50 custody, neither parent receives maintenance payments. Instead, both contribute equally to a transparent joint account specifically for verified child costs. School uniforms, educational expenses, medical costs, essential clothing: everything gets paid from this shared pot with mandatory receipts for every transaction.
How the Fair System Would Work
Joint Contribution Account: Both parents deposit equal amounts monthly based on their combined child-related expenses. No more, no less.
Transparent Spending: Every purchase requires a receipt uploaded to a shared digital platform. Want to spend £50 on school shoes? Show the receipt. Need money for a school trip? Provide the invoice.
Child Savings Priority: Any money left over at the end of each month automatically transfers to a savings account in the child's name: not available to either parent until the child reaches 18.
Equal Parenting Time: Genuine 50/50 custody means equal overnight stays, equal school pickups, equal responsibility. Not 48/52 or 45/55: true equality.
The Questions Nobody Wants to Answer
This system would expose some uncomfortable truths that the current setup desperately tries to hide:
Would mothers be so eager to claim maintenance if they couldn't profit from it? When child maintenance becomes transparent spending rather than a personal income stream, suddenly the motivation changes dramatically.
Why isn't equality the automatic default? If both parents are capable, why does one get primary custody while the other pays support? The answer: because inequality generates revenue.
What happens when the state can't profit from family breakdown? Remove the administrative fees, enforcement charges, and bureaucratic machinery: suddenly there's less incentive to maintain a complex, expensive system.
Maintenance as Income: The Dirty Secret
Here's what nobody talks about: Child maintenance has become a substitute income for some mothers. They use it to prove earnings for housing applications, benefits calculations, and financial assessments. What should be money specifically for children's needs becomes general household income.
In the proposed fair system, this exploitation becomes impossible. Money goes directly to child-related expenses with full transparency. No more using "child maintenance" as proof of income because it wouldn't exist as a separate payment stream.
Why the System Resists Change
The current maintenance system generates massive revenue streams:
- Administrative fees on every payment processed
- Enforcement charges when payments are missed
- Collection costs that escalate with each missed payment
- Interest charges on outstanding amounts
- Employment agency partnerships that profit from wage deductions
A transparent 50/50 system eliminates most of these revenue sources. The state loses millions, enforcement agencies lose contracts, and the entire industry built around family conflict suddenly becomes unnecessary.
Real Fathers, Real Stories
"I have my kids exactly 50/50 but still pay £400 monthly maintenance. My ex refuses to update her claim despite our equal arrangement. The system lets her pocket money while I struggle financially for caring equally for my own children."
"My custody is 17 nights plus additional days: more than 50/50. But because she won't remove her name from child support, my maintenance increased by 33%. I'm being financially punished for being a good father."
These aren't isolated cases: they're systematic exploitation enabled by a broken system that profits from injustice.
Benefits for Children: The Real Winners
Under true equality, children would benefit enormously:
Genuine relationship with both parents instead of weekend visitor arrangements
Financial security through transparent, accountable spending rather than parental income streams
Future security with automatic savings accounts building throughout their childhood
Reduced parental conflict because financial exploitation becomes impossible
Equal love and support from parents who aren't locked in financial warfare
The Resistance Will Be Fierce
Proposing genuine equality threatens powerful interests:
Mothers profiting from maintenance lose their income stream
The state loses millions in administrative revenue
Enforcement agencies lose lucrative contracts
Legal professionals lose ongoing conflict-based business
Housing associations lose maintenance-backed tenancy applications
Every Dad Matters: but the current system treats fathers as nothing more than cash machines for a broken bureaucracy.
Making Change Happen
True reform requires collective action. Join us in demanding:
- Automatic 50/50 custody unless proven unsafe
- Transparent joint spending accounts for all child-related expenses
- Equal parental rights without financial penalties
- State withdrawal from profitable family breakdown
- Child-focused solutions that prioritize well-being over revenue
The Time for Half-Measures is Over
We're not asking for special treatment: we're demanding basic equality. If you're ready to fight for a system that puts children first instead of state profits, if you're tired of being treated as a financial resource rather than an equal parent, join our movement for genuine reform.
The current system survives because it's profitable, not because it works. A transparent, equal approach threatens those profits: which is exactly why it's the right solution.
Fathers United. Rights Respected. Share this vision, demand change, and let's build a system that actually serves our children instead of exploiting their parents.
Ready to make genuine equality a reality? Contact us today and join thousands of fathers fighting for systemic change. Every Dad Matters: and it's time the system reflected that truth.