Thousands of parents failing to pay child support

Charity Gingerbread, which supports single parent families, says children who could be lifted out of poverty by the financial help are being failed.

And it says the figures are likely to rocket as a Department for Work and Pensions overstretched by the pandemic is not chasing up owed cash.

A separated parent can be forced to provide child maintenance through a Collect and Pay service if they cannot arrange payments with their former partner. But DWP data shows parents in Wolverhampton failed to pay into such schemes on 445 occasions between January and March. That was 44 per cent of Collect and Pay arrangements – the same proportion as the average across Great Britain over the period.

In Dudley parents failed to pay on 473 occasions, which was 46 per cent, in Sandwell it was 536, 43 per cent, in Walsall it was 473, 45 per cent, it was 153 in South Staffordshire, 51 per cent, 168 in Stafford, 45 per cent, and 159 in Cannock Chase, 40 per cent.

The figures include “arrears only cases” for which no ongoing child maintenance was due in the three months. Joe Richardson, research and policy officer at Gingerbread, said: “We expect the next set of figures to show that arrears have skyrocketed when they include the full effect of the DWP’s decision to not investigate any reductions to child maintenance payments made by a non-resident parent due to the pandemic.

Trap

“Research has shown that for those who are owed maintenance and are living in poverty, being paid the child maintenance they are due would lift around 60 per cent of them out of the poverty trap.”

The scheme, run by the Child Maintenance Service, is meant to help with the everyday living costs of looking after children. Some mums and dads are able to agree on payments privately. When this is not possible, one of them can apply to the CMS, which will say how much cash should be handed over. This can then be done through a Direct Pay service – 1,579 of these were in place in Wolverhampton between January and March. In Dudley 1,784 of these were in place, in Sandwell it was 2,029, in Walsall it was 1,758, 510 in South Staffordshire, 764 in Stafford, and 715 in Cannock Chase.

The CMS is supposed to take money directly from someone’s earnings or their bank account if they try to avoid payment, and can eventually take them to court.

A total of £354 million in child maintenance was owed by the end of March nationally.

A DWP spokesman said: “Parents using this time as an excuse to avoid paying what they owe are denying their children the best start in life. We will consider appropriate enforcement action on a case by case basis for any parent who is found to be abusing the system.”

The DWP added it had redeployed staff to the “front line” to deal with Universal Credit.