Are you a single-parent who has been affected by this?
It was the final day of the government’s consultation into child maintenance yesterday, and following those disscussions, the UK’s largest children’s charity, Barnardo's, is warning that the poorest parents will be forced to make an impossible choice under the new child maintenance system.
The choice will be to either open up old wounds with an ex-partner to try to renegotiate money or else pay new fees to have their existing child maintenance collected.
Under current government proposals, parents who have previously used the Child Support Agency to come to a financial arrangement with their ex-partners and who cannot come to a new voluntary arrangement will be required to pay an upfront charge of £20 and on-going fees of seven per cent when they are transferred to the new statutory service.
Neera Sharma, Barnardo’s assistant director of policy, said: “Under these unjust proposals, parents claiming child maintenance are being forced into a corner, where their choice is to open up old wounds with an ex-partner or pay unreasonable amounts of money to access the new service.
“If these plans go ahead we could see thousands of parents on low incomes ditch the child maintenance system altogether and it is children who will suffer from not getting the financial support that they need.
I had no choice but to use the child maintenance service – in our house every penny is accounted for and that maintenance is money I need... It’s the kids who will miss out
“As a minimum, the government must commit to fairness and help the poorest families by introducing a sliding scale of charging,” she said.
Laura Jones is single-handedly raising three children. She was in a relationship for three years before her partner, Ben, abruptly left. Laura came to Barnardo’s for support with her children. Initially, she was able to set up a private financial arrangement with ex-partner Ben, who paid the family £75 per fortnight. Laura started to rely on that money coming in – but it didn’t last long – in August this year the payments from Ben brusquely stopped.
“I didn’t feel I could contact Ben after everything that had happened and in any case, I had no way of getting in touch with him, I didn’t know where he was,” said Laura. “All I know is without that money; I’m left making ridiculous choices, like whether to buy food for the kids, or buy shampoo to wash my hair.
“I had no choice but to use the child maintenance service – in our house every penny is accounted for and that maintenance is money I need.
“I’ll be transferring to the new system next year but as we don’t have the luxury of savings – any fees I have to pay will come straight out of money that’s allocated for the weekly shop, for paying for bills or for household essentials for the kids. It’s the kids who will miss out,” added Laura.
Barnardo’s maintains in its consultation response that the government should consider lower charging fees for the poorest families who will struggle to pay the upfront and on-going charges.
A small-scale, snapshot survey of services run by Barnardo’s reveals that many separated parents are already reluctant to access the support currently available from the Child Support Agency. These parents would arguably be even less likely to access child maintenance with the introduction of fees. A number of issues were found to prevent separated parents from making private arrangements, including the ex-partner being missing, or abusive.
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