£3bn child support payments ‘uncollectable’

By The Press Association26th January 2015News EnglandChild Poverty, Children, Families, News England

Almost £3 billion in unpaid child support may never be recovered, according to official accounts.

The money is owed by absent parents who have been referred to the Child Support Agency (CSA).

Accounts prepared for Parliament by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) class £2.9 billion of the £3.9 billion owed in maintenance arrears as “uncollectable”, the BBC reported.

The figures emerged as the DWP said more absent parents than ever before are paying to support their children as a result of tough rules including taking money direct from pay packets.

The department said nearly nine out of 10 non-resident parents within the CSA system were now contributing towards their children.

The CSA has collected more than £1.2 billion in maintenance over the past 12 months, with £330 million of that coming from 184,090 earnings deduction orders taking the money straight from wage packets.

Child maintenance minister Steve Webb said: “When the coalition came to power in 2010, the CSA was in chaos with huge amounts of money left uncollected and simply not making its way to the children who needed it. This was fundamentally wrong.

“We’ve managed to turn this super-tanker around thanks to smarter processes and procedures, and tougher enforcement action against parents who refuse to recognise their responsibilities.

“Contributions towards child maintenance in the CSA are now running at an all-time high of 86.5% and I am delighted to see the number of parents who are either not paying as much as they should or nothing at all continues to fall.”

The new Child Maintenance Service is being phased in as a replacement for the CSA and will mean, for the first time, parents who are able are being given help to manage their own maintenance arrangements without further state intervention.

The DWP claimed that uncollectable arrears were “a fraction” of the £2.9 billion figure reported.

A spokeswoman said: “We do not recognise this figure.

“Our estimates put uncollectable arrears at a fraction of this sum and we are using new enforcement powers to target non-resident parents who have previously refused to pay the child maintenance they owe.”