It’s actually fatherhood that makes humanity different from most primate species. Usually it’s the females who look after the young, while a few weeks after birth many males don’t even recognise their own children.
Motherhood is biological and almost always strong. Fatherhood is cultural
and almost always in need of support. -- Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks
on Thought For the Day on Radio 4, 19 March 2004.

  
Briefing/Summer 2004



Fathercare.org is the original home on the web for London's Spiderman, for the first six months of Fathers 4 Justice's rise to fame, for exposure of abuse perpetrated inside secret Family Courts.
And it is also the home of the public interest case C3/2003/0893.

 

 



By Peter Tromp, Netherlands,
Eugen Hockenjos, UK

After divorce fathers do not get any help in caring for their children. They are treated as if they only have to care and live for themselves as individuals and have no relation with their children as caring parents.

They do not get help with housing, they do not get help for fares. Even when their children are with them for half the summer holiday, they do not get child top-up benefit moneys when unable to work due to illness or because of an accident at work or after a firm they worked for had gone bust

The social changes since the second world war are not reflected in social security schemes in the European countries.

All moneys go to mothers.This is historically, because payments in the past were given to the mother, in the age where divorce was uncommon.

All European countries are required under EU Law Directive 79/7 to operate social security schemes that do not discriminate against claimants on the grounds of a claimants gender.

In the Netherlands, Here is the answer to your question on the Dutch situation regarding acknowledgement of equal parenting or shared care arrangements in Dutch Social Security Laws:

Equal parenting or shared care (In Dutch: co-ouderschap) is nowhere dealt with in the Dutch social security laws. It simply doesn’t exist or is denied in the Dutch Social Security laws.

But on the lower levels of some (not all) Dutch executional institutions on Social Security there are sometimes executional directives or regulations in place to deal with shared care or equal parenting arrangements anyway, allthough not backed up by the law.

In the case of the Dutch executional office - called Social Security Bank (In Dutch: Sociale Verzekerings Bank – SVB) – dealing with the payments of child benefits (in Dutch: Kinderbijslag), the regional branches of this office have made such an executional directive or regulation of their own to deal with shared care, which is not supported by any Dutch law.

The directive or regulation is executed by using forms that have to be filled in by parents if their specifics have changed. On these forms you can both indicate:

a. how you want the child benefits to be proportioned between both parents sharing care after a divorce

b. and on which two bankaccounts the child benefits have to be paid out to

But, and this is crucial: Both (ex)partners must be in full agreement on the distributing arrangement and this has to be proved by adding a written and signed contract on the subject, signed by both parents.

As soon as there is no cöoperation or written agreement between both parents the child benefits will again and immediately only be paid to the account of the parent where the children are registered to be living with, usually the mother.

In the UK: see case C3/2003/0893 ...


 
All Dads whose parenting skills prior to the point of split went without question have to prove themselves worthy once the courts are involved. But because of inbuild gender prejudice within EU social schemes, even if Dad is deemed worthy enough to continue contact with his off-springs, he will get treated as if he is but single lad.

Site Meter HOMEPAGE

 
webdesign
©2004 fathercare.org