Family Law Inverness Latest News

Single-parent charity Gingerbread has called on English councils to keep child maintenance out of council tax support calculations, claiming that low-income families will be significantly worse off if this is not done.

According to the charity, there are four main reasons why child maintenance should be left out of council tax support calculations. It argues that including maintenance will:

- Increase the risk of child poverty among single parents – whose children are already twice as likely to live in poverty.

The minister responsible for child maintenance has hailed the progress that has been made in separated parents accepting financial responsibility for their children. At a key summit on children and young people he said Britain has in recent years “turned an important corner.”

According to Steve Webb, more than four in five separated parents are now paying towards their children through the Child Support Agency (CSA). That’s up from around two in three parents paying towards their children five years ago. He said that the reforms to the child maintenance system are essential to get more parents working together.

The government has embarked on the biggest reform to the child support system in a generation, with a new focus on parental collaboration rather than reliance on the state for assistance.

More than £300 million in maintenance was collected for children from April to June this year, vital support which single parent charity Gingerbread warns is at risk as the Child Support Agency (CSA) prepares for closure.

Existing cases with the CSA will be closed and parents will have to reapply to the new Child Maintenance Service (CMS), once case closure begins next year. Trials of the new scheme have already begun.

To reopen their case, parents will have to pay £20 up front and may face ongoing collection charges if the paying parent fails to pay and the CMS is required to step in.