News

Monday 27 October 2008

Single parent crisis

Seven year wait for child support

A new system of Child Support payments will take seven years to establish; therefore thousands of single mothers may have to wait until 2015 to receive maintenance payments.

It’s also suggested that one in four single parents will be ‘too scared’ to claim after the CSA shake up because of bad relationships with their ex partners.

A study commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions found 24 per cent of single parents would not make child maintenance arrangements in the future, therefore losing an average of £60 a month.

Two years ago, plans were announced for the new child maintenance system to replace the CSA. The new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission will take legal responsibility for the CSA’s cases on November 1, but alarmingly, old cases will not start to be transferred until 2011, when the new IT system is up and running.

However, it seems there is some good news with changes to the child maintenance system, which come into force today.
Mothers on benefits will no longer be required by law to use the CSA to claim maintenance and can also keep £20 a week of any maintenance paid without it affecting their benefits.

A new helpline, called Child Maintenance Options will also help separating parents by advising them on payments and how they can best set up arrangements between them.

It’s hoped that these measures will mean a drop in caseloads by about 60 per cent, with the result that the new commission can concentrate on the toughest cases – those who go to extreme length’s to avoid paying for their children’s upkeep.

Leading charities have criticised the new plans. Fiona Weir, Chief executive of One Parent Families said; ‘We fear that many poor single parents on benefits will struggle to agree private child support arrangements and their children may end up doing without.’

‘Today only one in three eligible children will get child maintenance. We need to build a culture that sees it as socially unacceptable not to support children after separation and to make sure that the most vulnerable will not lose out.’

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