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CSA Calculates Nurse Earns £1m a Year
Added: (Fri Oct 28 2005)
Press Information – For Immediate Release
17th October 2005
CSA CALCULATES PART TIME
NURSE EARNS £1M A YEAR
A CSA ruling, which suggests a part time nurse earns in excess of £1million a year, has perplexed a Bridgend couple.
Company director and employer, Jonathan Knight and his partner Jane Bullock, who works part time at The Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport were on the receiving end of this bizarre calculation in 2003.
The news came when the CSA applied a departure to Mr Knight’s child support assessment, which effectively means that Mrs Bullock is responsible for 99% of their housing costs, while Mr Knight (who bought the property in 1999) is recognised to contribute only one per cent of the costs.
In response to the calculation, Mr Knight has lobbied the CSA to explain their figures. He’s even got local MP Win Griffiths (now Madeleine Moon MP) on the case – but the CSA still refuse to justify their decision despite a complaint to the Independent Case Examiner in October, which was upheld by the Examiner.
Jonathan Knight said: “I’ve written around 80 letters to the CSA and 40 to my MP – and I’ve got absolutely nowhere. The issue has taken over my life. The fact that it’s getting me down is an understatement.”
He added: “In the 17 years I’ve been in business, we’ve paid taxes which must run into the millions. It bothers me that they are being wasted on bureaucratic, inefficient and wasteful organisations like the CSA.
“In April I told the CSA I couldn’t afford to keep writing to them without response. It was taking too much of my time and diverting me from running my business and ensuring the 20 jobs provided in our business are safeguarded. I asked that they apply themselves to resolving all outstanding issues I have raised with them whilst also complaining to the next level, the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The CSA have responded by applying to the local Magistrates Court for a Liability Order. I know of no other Government department that is allowed to take legal action without responding adequately to genuine and reasonable questions about how they arrive at their figures. The CSA are, effectively, demanding money with menaces and using the law to support an abuse of power”
Mr Knight now awaits the intervention of the Parliamentary Ombudsman but has been advised that due to the increased volume of complaints about the CSA his complaint, initiated in March this year, will not be looked at until the end of 2005.
Ends.
Further information from Jonathan Knight
Telephone 01639 794446 or 07768 750881
E Mail: jonathanK@talktalk.net
CSA Contact: Shan Jones at CSA Swansea office on 01792 450466
Madleine Moon MP at House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA