A fathers’ rights and responsibilities in the UK
Writing this article is probably going to be a little difficult since the law has been quite sketchy over the last few years.
As a father you would want to assume responsibilities and rights straight away as soon as your child is born. However, in many cases these days, it doesn’t automatically happen because of unlawful activity on the mother’s part. i.e putting father unknown on the birth certificate.
First of all, a father has as much rights as the mother has under the law with regarding to the newborn child. If the mother of the child has registered the child without the father’s name and saying unknown, when in fact she does know who the father is and has had frequent communication with the father regarding the baby, she must realise that the court will demand that the father’s name be mentioned on a replacement birth certificate.
Which in turn will give the father natural parental responsibility. The mother then has to abide by the law and do as the court says.
The father of the child will have contact with the child in agreement with the mother through the court which has to be enforced.
A father is also responsible for the upkeep of his child and therefore will be asked to pay maintenance to the mother if the child is living with the mother and if the child is living with the father, the mother has to pay the maintenance.
So in all fairness, the father and mother should try to agree and set up an agreement for contact and maintenance as soon as possible. You still have to be able to speak to each other even though you are not living with each other for the sake of your child.
