Non-dad seeks extra compo

A Christchurch man who has won a 21-year battle against bureaucracy will continue to seek compensation after being forced to support another man's child since 1984.

The Ministry of Social Development has agreed to pay Gordon Dowler $10,000 after a battle that has dragged on since 1984, first with Social Welfare and then with Inland Revenue after the IRD took over collecting payments.

Mr Dowler, a specialist welder, is pressing his case further by applying for expenses and interest which may exceed the original amount he paid from 1982 to 2003.

He said he had been "harassed' by the child support officials every month since 1982 over money he knew he should not be paying.

The 51-year-old said he was not able to prove his case with a DNA test until 2003 when the now grown-up child agreed to take part.

The mother had blocked previous attempts to get a test.

IRD promptly paid him the $8000 he was owed after the DNA test showed he was not the father.

The Ministry of Social Development was more reluctant, holding out until yesterday, when it agreed to pay Mr Dowler the $10,000 he had paid for child support before 2003.

Ministry chief executive Peter Hughes told Television One last night that since IRD refunded $8000, the department had a moral obligation to refund nearly $10,000.

Mr Dowler's story began in 1981, when the mother called him while he was overseas to tell him she was pregnant with his baby.

He returned to New Zealand and bought a house for his new family.

Three months after the birth Mr Dowler found out the baby wasn't his but he helped look after it until he and the mother separated in 1983.

He started paying child support, but soon after began to contest the payments, which were about 20 per cent of his income.

"It has definitely influenced the course of my life because I have had no money to do anything."

- NZPA