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Single parent charity Gingerbread has commented on the release of new figures by the government that show there is at least £1 million of child maintenance arrears in each one of the 650 parliamentary constituencies.

Gingerbread’s Chief Executive, Fiona Weir, said: “These arrears have accumulated over many years. Not all of it will be collectable, sometimes for the simple reason that the parent liable to pay genuinely can’t afford it. But parents who are owed maintenance for their children need to know that the CSA has done all it can to enforce the responsibility to pay it.”

In just over a year’s time, all existing CSA cases will begin to be closed and parents will have to pay in future to have their child maintenance collected by the new Child Maintenance Service. Gingerbread is calling on the Government to do all it can to reduce the money owed to parents in the next year, so that these parents do not end up having to pay the new service to collect arrears that the CSA should have collected.

The Minister in charge of the child maintenance system has promised intensive action against irresponsible parents who have failed to support their children after separation.

It comes as new figures show sharp increases in the use of key enforcement powers against parents who refuse to pay. Deduction Orders - where money is removed directly from debtor’s accounts - have trebled since 2009. Driving disqualifications for non-payment have risen eightfold since 2008.

Child Support Agency data also shows that more than 5,000 past and current CSA cases are over £50,000 in arrears.

Work and Pensions Minister Maria Miller:

“These shocking figures underline the long- term failure of a system that has let down countless families. We are now taking tougher action against those who have refused to pay. All parents who are still owed CSA arrears can be assured that we will take all reasonable steps to recover this money for them.”

Fathers who no longer live with their partners and are on benefits should be made to work if they refuse to take financial responsibility for their children, claims think tank Policy Exchange in a new report.

The report calls for the government to target these individuals and fast track them on to work experience schemes to try and get them back into the labour market. Men who refuse to participate should have their benefits removed.

The report notes that other countries, particularly the US and Germany, have been far more successful in making sure that absent fathers on benefits are taking on their parental responsibilities.

The report says that it is time the government forced these men to take responsibility for their actions. It makes a number of recommendations, including:

• Imposing work obligations on absent fathers claiming benefits.
• Requiring both mother and father to include their names on the birth certificate.
• Keeping child maintenance payments in place for each child regardless if the parent goes on to have more children with new partners.

The report also recommends exempting single parents claiming Income Support from paying a fee to access the Child Support Agency (CSA).

According to Policy Exchange, the government’s proposals to introduce charges are a sensible attempt to push those parents who are capable of making their own arrangements into doing so. However, the new arrangements will mean people on benefits paying £50 to access the CSA, the equivalent to almost a week of Income Support. If they are trying to chase payment from an absent father on benefits who is obliged to pay £5 a week, the total they can expect to gain over a year from the CSA would be £260.

Therefore, charging to access the CSA would deter those who most need financial support from accessing the service.

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Agency has revealed the scale of the cost of administering some Child Support Agency (CSA) cases. A typical case requiring a variety of actions to ensure the payment of maintenance can cost up to around £25,000 over 18 years.

Internal management estimates show that when the case involves legal action, the cost to the public purse can jump significantly - by as much as 50%. A ‘difficult’ case in the North West involving years of enforcement against a determinedly resistant parent cost the taxpayer around £40,000.

The wealthy businessman had avoided paying regular child maintenance for his two sons for more than 16 years. During a marathon legal battle the Agency was forced to deploy nearly all of the legal enforcement tools available to it including liability orders, third party debt orders and a charging order imposed on his home. In the end an order for the sale of the property finally compelled him to make a payment of £70,000.

None of the estimated costs in these examples include the added burden of the CSA’s inefficient computer systems, which are due to be replaced over the next few years.

The Government has announced that, as part of the restructuring of the child maintenance system, an extra £20 million will be made available to support families going through divorce or separation. 

The money will help families work out their own arrangements, rather than trapping them in the current outdated system, which has been shown to be expensive and divisive and does not put children first.

A typical case in the Child Support Agency can cost the taxpayer around £25,000, rising to around £40,000 if enforcement action is needed. Many parents already share the care of their children and it is estimated that if those made their own arrangements for maintenance this could save the taxpayer £45m per year.

Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said:

"This is about helping to put children first in what is a difficult and traumatic time for all concerned. Most parents want to come to arrangements with a minimal disruption to their children and by offering them the right support we can help make this the case.

"We need to radically re-think the support we provide to separating parents to place family responsibility and the welfare of children at its heart. Our plans to reform the child maintenance system will enable parents to come to their own family-based arrangements which work far better for children."

A senior Conservative Peer has announced his intention to challenge the Government's plans to charge single parents to use the future Child Support Agency.

Lord Mackay of Clashfern, who as Margaret Thatcher’s Lord Chancellor introduced the Child Support Act 1991, has tabled an amendment that would exempt from the charges those parents who have no alternative but to use the statutory maintenance service, because private arrangements are not possible or appropriate. The amendment is due to go to a vote on Wednesday 25th January.

The amendment would prevent the Government imposing the following charges on parents who turn to the statutory maintenance service because, without its help, their children would not receive fair and regular child maintenance:

• An up-front application charge levied on the applicant (overwhelmingly ‘parents with care’, around 97% of whom are mothers) in order to use the future new Agency. The Government is discussing a charge of 100 or £50 for an applicant on benefits.

• A ‘collection charge’ taken by the Agency from each maintenance payment it collects, in the range of 7-12% of the payment, before the money is passed on for the child/children.

There is a further ‘collection surcharge’ which the Government proposes to levy on the ‘non-resident parent’, additional to actual maintenance due, in the range 15-20% of the maintenance liability, where the Agency has to step in to collect the maintenance to ensure it gets paid. This would not be affected by the amendment.

Gingerbread Chief Executive Fiona Weir said:

“We are very grateful to Lord Mackay for taking up this vital issue in the Lords, and the indications of support he has received so far show the high level of cross-party concern at the government’s proposals.

“We fully support efforts to help separated parents work together to deal with the financial, emotional and practical consequences of separation. But the government needs to realise that in very many cases that isn’t possible, and if charges are introduced then it will be children who lose out.”

New research from single parents’ charity Gingerbread has shown that child maintenance payments lift one in five poor families who receive it over the poverty line – but poorer single-parent families are the least likely to receive any maintenance.

The research has prompted calls for the government to rethink its proposed charges for using the Child Support Agency (CSA), which could shut even more families out. The plans include a fee of up to £100 just to apply for CSA help, and the Agency taking a 7-12% cut from all maintenance payments it collects.

The Gingerbread research comes as new government data shows over 876,000 children rely on the CSA for their maintenance, underlining the increasing need for the Agency in ensuring that parents living apart from their children meet their financial responsibilities.

However, the analysis also found that single-parent families living below the poverty line were least likely to receive any maintenance. Just 31% of single parents in poverty received maintenance, compared to 50% of single parents with income levels above the national median. 720,000 eligible families have no child maintenance arrangement at all.

The Child Support Agency has forcibly deducted a record sum of money from a father's bank account in order to settle 16 years worth of child maintenance he failed to pay for his daughter.

Using powers requiring banks to open up the accounts of indebted parents, investigators found enough money in a single deposit account to repay his entire debt of £108,000. The amount was frozen to allow the man time to appeal and later seized.

In another case a mother from London, whose ex-partner refused to pay for his child for eight years, has received more than £20,000 taken from his bank account via a lump sum deduction order.

With an estimated £3.7 billion owed in unpaid child maintenance, Ministers have signalled their determination to crack down on irresponsible parents who fail to support their children.

Work and Pensions Minister, Maria Miller, said:

“We are also fundamentally reforming the child maintenance system. The flawed rules under which the CSA operates give parents no incentive to pay up on time, still less collaborate with their child's other parent to make sure their children are properly supported.”

The current Child Support Agency scheme is set to close to new customers from next year. A new child maintenance service will be launched in the biggest overhaul of the system since it was first set up in 1993.

EU Member States should help single mothers by setting up "family centres" to provide them with temporary accommodation, advice and education, the European Parliament has said in a non-legislative resolution.

The resolution calls for a number of initiatives to support single parents, including:

• - Single mothers should get housing support and priority on waiting lists for houses to rent.
• - Tax deductions for single-parent households and other incentives for companies to employ single parents or provide on-site childcare facilities.
• - Parental training courses to prepare and teach young single parents without income how to raise children more effectively.
• - Access to training, vocational training and specific scholarships for single mothers whether they are unmarried, widowed or separated, should be facilitated through funding by the European Social Fund and Member States.
• - Member States should ensure that child support from non-custodial parents is paid regularly, and single fathers should also benefit from all initiatives and actions in favour of single mothers.

The Government has launched a three month consultation on planned structural changes to the child maintenance system. The proposals involve transferring the functions of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission into the Department for Work and Pensions, under direct Ministerial control.

A father who hadn't paid child support for his daughter for over 16 years has had a record sum of money seized from his bank account, reports the Telegraph.

A recent survey by charity Gingerbread has found that around half of single parents currently using the Child Support Agency (CSA) will not be able to afford to pay the fees proposed to access the new child maintenance service.