NEW survey results show that almost half (46 per cent) of single parents currently using the Child Support Agency – as polled by charity Gingerbread - could not afford to pay the fees proposed to access the new child maintenance service.
Furthermore, of those families surveyed by Gingerbread who said they could not afford the fees, 72 per cent said they could not set up private arrangements with their ex-partners - meaning their children would simply have to go without maintenance support.
The findings fly in the face of Government assumptions that paying fees to use the child maintenance service or coming to private arrangements are realistic options for the majority of separated parents.
Gingerbread Chief Executive Fiona Weir said:
“This shows the devastating impact that charging could have on the amount of child maintenance that will get through to children. If these findings were to be replicated across the whole CSA caseload, that could mean nearly 300,000 single parent families would go without child maintenance.
“Ever since these proposals were announced, single parents have been in touch with us in their droves to tell us the hardship they will face if they can no longer get child maintenance. We urge the Government to scrap these proposals.”
Barnardo’s runs over 100 family support services and 80 children’s centres. The UK’s largest children’s charity knows from experience that parental separation is particularly stressful for the vulnerable families and children we work with.
A small-scale, snapshot survey of services run by Barnardo’s has revealed that many separated parents don’t currently access the support available from the Child Support Agency, resulting in children losing out on the financial support available. A number of issues were also found to prevent separated parents from making private arrangements, including the ex-partner being missing, or abusive.
Barnardo’s chief executive Anne Marie Carrie said:
“If the Government’s child maintenance proposals go ahead, we could see thousands of parents on low incomes stranded between a rock and a hard place, unable to pay fees and unable to make private arrangements.
“With spiraling fuel and other rising costs, there is a real danger that the poorest families will be left making choices for their children such as heating or eating.
“The current proposals must be urgently reconsidered as the last thing that vulnerable families need are further barriers preventing them from getting the financial support that their children deserve”.
Gingerbread and Barnardo’s are calling on the Government to reconsider child maintenance proposals in the Welfare Reform Bill that could impact disproportionately on the poorest.
Read our full report below. See our campaign page for a look at what we've been doing to fight charges so far.
Ends
Notes to editors
1. The CSA operates as part of the Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission (CMEC) and will gradually be wound down, starting in 2012. The Government is proposing that the child maintenance system include a compulsory ‘gateway service’, where anyone wanting to use the new child maintenance service will first have to show they have taken ‘reasonable steps’ to investigate a private arrangement with their ex-partner. If this fails, then single parents who want to use new service will, from 2013, have to pay an upfront application fee of £100 (or £50 if they claim benefit, with £20 due straightaway and the rest in instalments), plus an extra ongoing charge of between 7 per cent and 12 per cent of the money paid to them.
2. The Welfare Reform Bill (with relevant child maintenance clauses that are UK-wide) is at http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/welfarereform.html
3. Peers debating the second reading of the Welfare Reform Bill in the House of Lords this week included Tory former Lord Chancellor Lord Mackay of Clashfern, who echoed charities’ concerns about the plight of the parent with care in relation to child maintenance fees.
Lord Mackay said that as a result of the reforms the parent with care would be unable to get support from absent parents. He further warned against “charging the parent left in the lurch”.
Baroness Sherlock OBE reiterated these concerns saying, “The bill and the response by the Government… make it clear that the intention is to put significant barriers in the way of any single parent who wants to make a claim through the statutory system. She added, “Those who do make it through the gateway will have to pay a fee just to be allowed to apply for the money to which they are entitled in law.”
Gingerbread
4. Gingerbread is the charity which works nationally and locally for and with single parent families to improve their lives.
5. Their survey had 1,777 full responses from a random, self-selecting sample of single parent members of the charity from across the UK.
Survey findings are published in the briefing ‘Priced out of child maintenance? The government’s charging proposals’ available at www.gingerbread.org.uk.
Key findings of the survey
Overall 46 per cent of respondents currently using the CSA and due maintenance said they would stop using the service as they could not afford the upfront charges
72 per cent of single parents surveyed who could not afford the fees said they would go without child maintenance as they would struggle to set up a private arrangement with their ex-partner.
6. Gingerbread runs a free Single Parent Helpline and advice service on 0808 802 0925 (free to mobile networks) and publishes a range of free publications on every aspect of one parent family life, including benefits and tax, child maintenance, housing and employment. Gingerbread also runs a membership scheme and several return-to-work projects for single parents working with private, public and other voluntary sector organisations to deliver these.
7. For further information please contact Gingerbread policy and research officer Amy Skipp on 020 7428 5780, or the out of hours press mobile on 07881 951138.
Barnardo’s
8. Barnardo’s does not provide services which are specifically for single parents but runs over 100 family support services and 80 children’s centres. Our staff support separated families as part of their wider work.
9. From 21st June – 8th July 2011 Barnardo’s conducted a small scale, snapshot survey where we asked 15 of our children’s service managers to report on experiences of family separation and child maintenance. Barnardo’s services that responded included children’s centres, intensive family support services and services providing short breaks for families with disabled children.
10. Barnardo’s works with more than 100,000 children, young people and their families in 415 specialised projects in communities across the UK. We believe in the potential of every child and young person, no matter who they are, what they have done or what they have been through. We will support them, stand up for them and bring out the best in each and every child.