[Solved] Needing Advice

Hi,

I am the proud father of 2 sons however, I am currently in a situation were I see no light at the end of the tunnel, and I am looking for advice or some direction on were to turn and what to do.

My 2 sons are from a 7 year long relationship, which came to an end at the begining of January this year.

At that point, my access to the children was limited to 3 evenings a week after school. This continued until my youngest son's 3rd birthday which the children spent with me. After this time, their mother decided to make an accusation that I had harmed my youngest son's arm and my father had dragged my eldest along a floor and left carpet burns on his back, all of which no evidence has surfaced.

During this time, although social services told me they get involved when contact becomes an issue, they never once attempted to get contact back or give any support.

After approx a month of this, my solicitor submitted a contact order to the local courts, for which I was granted a contact order which allowed over-night access every 2nd week and access after school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of every week.

This continued for a short period of time, until the end of July, when I found a mark, which resembled a burn on the back of my 3 year olds leg. After seeking medical advice, I was told to contact social services straight away because it looked remarkebly like a ciggarete burn.

After doing so, the child protection team and social services safeguarding team became involved, and at this time, the children were placed on the child protection register under the category of neglect and placed into my care as the mother refutted that both children had given an explanation of how it had happened to a social worker, doctor and police officer, and each time the same thing. Therefore it was decided she was not able to protect and safeguard the children and they were placed into my care.

Since this time, I have tried applying for child benefits, for which I am told they have to contact the mother about, apply for housing benefits with the inclusion of the children, which I cannot do because I do not get child benefit, apply for crisis loans, for which they cannot include the children, and yes they cannot include the children because I do not get child benefits.

I have now had the children for 6+ weeks and I am getting no financial support from anyone, and I am expect to keep the children on JSA which I get £71 for. And to make things worse, I have just been told today I am in breech of my job seekers agreement because I am saying I am able to work full-time but cannot because I have the children, but cannot be classified as a single parent and claim income support because, you guessed it, no child benefits.

So basically, the mother receives £150 a week for the care and costs of the children and gives nothing, cloths, food or money to help provide for their upkeep whilst with me.

I also received a phone call this morning from social worker accusing me of lying to them saying that my childrens school had not received a fax from them stating that because the mother has to be supervised when she has access, that she cannot pick the children up. However, I got a copy of this fax from the school and took it to them, for which I haven't had a response or an appology.

At the I feel like I am up against brick walls every way I turn, and I feel as though that social services are backing me into a corner and trying to push me into somehow breaching the child protection plan, so they can get the children back to their mother.

I am fighting as much as I can, but I am starting to feel like I am buckling under the pressure because I feel like there is no support for dads were I am and like even though the children came to harm under the mothers care, they would quite willing put the children back into harms way.

Any advice on any of this is greatly appreciated.

I have a appointment with my local MP and a core group meeting and team around the family meeting next week, and would like to be able to put my foot down because this is getting beyond a joke. I have also made an application for residency because of the physical injury.