Hey there, Not being employed has no bearing on your abiliyt to look after your son so that should not come into consideration of you having custody of your son. Seeing as your son's father has never met him there is no way int he world a judge would give custody to his father you know how to look after him and have done so very well alone for the past 5 months. On benefits you would only recieve a small ammount of the csa paid when I went through this 4 years ago I recieved �10 a week of it and the state had the rest. But it should be back paid from when he was born. If you have any evidence at all of your ex's drinking then take it with you police reposts etc as you do have the right to request contact at a centre. This is a horrible situation to be in hun and I believe I will be there myself soon with my 6 month old baby but my situation is a bit more complicated as my ex is a nutcase with alot of issues but only time will tell with him if he wants contact! I hope it all goes well for you and you manage to get a sensible decision out of the court Good Luck!! x x x