child support

I have never understood why there should be no correlation between access and child maintenance.  I was judicially kept away from my children yet I was expected to send quite a lot of money every month to my wife to support them!  When I first left, my wife was still at home with the children.  I paid all of my monthly salary into her bank account to support both her and the children.  I had to find a second well-paid job in order to support myself.  I was a civil servant working at the Elephant & Castle.  I managed to find a job in a bookie's in Cambridge Road, Kingston.  The owner was called Ivor Thomas.  It was absolutely awful for me since, having been brought up in the Salvation Army where any form of gambling was forbidden, I now found myself in the thick of it all.  The betting shop was opposite a tower block of council flats from where most of the punters came to place their bets.  On a saturday morning it was very busy.  There was a manager and two staff.  I was responsible for writing up the board and for taking bets.  It was all very quick -bets were usually thrown across the counter just before the off and had to be put through the till before the off. The tills were not automatic and we had to calculate the 10% tax in our heads.  My till was never even one penny out.  The job was very well paid but the draw-back was that I was not at home with Ken all weekend, nor on Bank Holidays.  Nevertheless, it enabled me to live since all of my salary went in support of my wife and children.  It needs to be appreciated that, for the first eighteen months after I left, my wife was not working and I was paying the mortgage and all of the bills.  When my younger son turned three years old my wife went back to work part time as a teacher and, as a result, I was able to reduce the amount I was giving the family.  Even before the divorce I was giving her 150 pounds per month, voluntarily and with no tax relief!  During the late 70s.  My salary was only 10,000 pounds per year!!  In my view I was not the sort of absent father who deserts the family without a penny and avoids paying maintenance!!  Even so, I have been spoken of really badly by my ex-wife and family - even up to the present date!!