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League table of shame reveals sky-high local child maintenance debts.
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Single parent charity Gingerbread has obtained a nationwide league table of child maintenance debt showing, by parliamentary constituency, just how much money is owed to children by non-resident parents across the country. In total, there is a child maintenance ‘debt mountain’ of £3,761 million. The ‘national league table of shame’ reveals that the top twenty constituencies where most maintenance is owed are:
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Constituency |
Amount owed |
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Great Grimsby |
£11,069,000 |
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Milton Keynes South West |
£ 10,495,000 |
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Blackpool South |
£10,370,000 |
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Telford |
£ 10,196,000 |
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Thurrock |
£ 10,155,000 |
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Kingston upon Hull East |
£ 10,044,000 |
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Gloucester |
£ 9,710,000 |
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Leeds Central |
£ 9,612,000 |
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Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle |
£ 9,559,000 |
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Croydon North |
£ 9,478,000 |
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Halton |
£ 9,452,000 |
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Cannock Chase |
£ 9,375,000 |
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Rochford and Southend East |
£9,330,000 |
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North East Milton Keynes |
£ 9,330,000 |
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Great Yarmouth |
£ 9,317,000 |
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Southampton, Itchen |
£ 9,269,000 |
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Portsmouth South |
£ 9,243,000 |
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West Bromwich West |
£ 9,233,000 |
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Hastings and Rye |
£ 9,194,000 |
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Birmingham, Ladywood |
£ 9,184,000 |
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Commenting on the figures, Gingerbread’s Chief Executive Fiona Weir said:
“Child maintenance is vital for children in separated families. We know from single parents that this is much-needed money which pays for items such as children’s clothes, school meals, trips and activities and childcare. Ultimately the responsibility for paying child maintenance rests with the non-resident parent, but the Child Support Agency has to do its job too in collecting debts and enforcing payment. We want to help single parents caring for children take action to ensure their arrears are paid. They can phone our free Single Parent Helpline on 0808 802 0925 and get a ‘Top Tips’ leaflet on how to pursue their child maintenance arrears.”
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Note to editors:
Information placed in the House of Commons Library on 12 July 2010 in response to a question by Natascha Engel MP shows the amount of child maintenance arrears owed in each parliamentary constituency.
Nationally, £3,761 million was owed in child maintenance arrears as of March 2010, of which around £1,065 million has been judged to be collectable. The table placed in the Library shows the amount owed by non-resident parents at the same date based on the parliamentary constituency where they live. It is based on cases administered by the Child Support Agency’s computer system (rounded up to the nearest £1,000), but does not include cases managed off the computer. (Therefore the figures will not sum to the overall total at March 2010)
Last year the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (now in charge of the Child Support Agency) missed its debt collection target, collecting £147 million of arrears against a target of £170 million.
Gingerbread is the charity which works in England and Wales for and with single parent families, to improve their lives. We achieve change by championing their voices and needs and providing support services.
The charity runs a 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.
Gingerbread press contact: Jane Ahrends on 0207 428 5416 or 0788 1951138
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