SIR: Mr Tony Blair leader of the Labour Party knows the Child Support Agency is in dire straits. A survey carried out by Labour's Gerry Sutcliffe just before the general election firmly established that MPs are simply not prepared to carry on dealing with surgeries stuffed full of CSA cases. They want action. The point is, what kind of action will they get?

They realise the only solution is abolition, yet, strangely, Labour's catch phrase of the moment is that they cannot afford to scrap the CSA.

They seem quite unaware that income is more or less the same as it was under the old Liable Relatives Unit, yet the CSA costs nearly four times more to run.

The computer system that Mark Thatcher helped sell to his mother is to be junked within two years. According to one national newspaper it cost taxpayers £600m and we will be paying for it until 2003. The new one comes in at around £1.1b and we'll be paying for both over a period of several years.

The CSA has a debt mountain in excess of £1b, most of which will never be recovered.

What's more, the court-based system remains in place. It still deals with all other aspects of divorce, even though matters of child maintenance have been removed from its remit. There is no reason why, even temporarily, things couldn't go back to how they were. It would instantly save taxpayers £1.1b..... the cost of a new computer.

Labour have told us they intend to listen and that their role is to be a servant of the people. Britain's Network Against the Child Support Agency, NACSA. hopes to God they are listening now. They are wrong to say they cannot afford to abolish the Child Support Act. In truth they can't afford not to.

Anyone who is affected or aggrieved by the CSA, can contact their local NACSA group. Meetings are held at the Victory Reform Club, Bolton, every two weeks on Tuesday evenings 8pm. OR The Victoria Pub, Leigh (opposite B&Q) every second Monday of the month 7.30pm.

We offer free help and advice to anyone who is affected, for more information please contact me on 01942 674053 after 2pm or their own MP.

Diane Penkethman

Selwyn Street, Leigh

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.