WITH the rate of marriage breakdowns running at around one in three, there is a clear need for an organisation which arbitrates over parental contributions towards the cost of raising children.

The Child Support Agency, the organisation given that responsibility, has its problems and is overdue for reform. However, it should be acknowledged that it has a far from straightforward task.

We all want absent fathers who dodge their responsibilities to their children to be brought into line, in the same way that we want the Government to root out tax dodgers and benefit cheats. We want to see fairness enforced.

But in the legitimate pursuit of those who fleece the system, genuine victims are sometimes scooped up in the net.

Peter Phillips, who hanged himself only a few weeks after writing to the CSA threatening to kill himself, appears to be one of those victims.

Mr Phillips reached such a low ebb that he felt there was no point in continuing with his life, when its quality had been so eroded by his financial situation.

We do not pretend that there is an easy solution to what has become a very significant problem for society.

But it is a problem which is likely to go on growing, and the CSA has a huge burden of responsibility in striving to strike the right balance between the needs of children, mothers and fathers.

And the heartbreaking death of Peter Phillips underlines again why extreme care has to be taken with every individual case.