Single parent families in crisis as millions plunged into poverty by ‘broken system’

Half of all children in single-parent families are living in relative poverty, according to shocking figures published by the Institute of Fiscal Studies. And now, parents and experts are warning that the Child Maintenance Service currently in place does not function effectively to help these vulnerable families.

The CMS has an online calculator intended to help the residential parent – usually the mother as, according to the Office for National Statistics, 90 percent of single parents are women – work out how much they are eligible to receive from the non-residential parent. While the online calculator was found to be beneficial amongst some parents, the researchers found it did not work as well when amongst those with lower incomes and fewer resources.  

Dr Davies explained: “Unfortunately a lot of parents are rather poor. If you go back to Sir David Henshaw’s [who investigated Child Support Agency] report in 2006, many of the parents were in low-paid, insecure work and he found that they should not be part of the system. They’re in poverty before, then both in it after. Child Maintenance does not help them with care because the amount that would be paid, cannot be paid in any case… These people should not be in the system, the system does not work for them.”

She added that it was paramount that the regular payment was fair, reasonable and most of all, affordable. Dr Davis told that thousands of parents were being drawn into a “system which is broken” with there being a “fundamental problem with affordability”. 

Additionally, each time a child maintenance payment is made through the CMS, the parent has to pay a fee. For the paying parent, this is 20 percent, and for the receiving parent, this is four percent. These fees further add to low-income parents’ strife, the panel explained to the DWP. 

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‘A very traumatic time’

Gemma, who became a single mother with three small children in 2019, has struggled with the CMS system and has been supported by the charity Gingerbread which supports those in her position in England and Wales. 

Describing that time, she said: “The rug had been pulled from beneath us. It was a very traumatic time for me and my daughters. We were forced to leave our family home and the children had to come to terms with the fact that their daddy had gone away and wasn’t coming back.”

As she knew her ex-partner would never pay willingly, she made an application to CMS towards the end of 2019. But she said this did not go as smoothly as she had hoped: “I explained that it had been a financially controlling relationship as well as providing crime reference numbers relating to death threats and damage to property. I was told that unless I had experienced physical abuse, I was unlikely to qualify for the waiver of the £20 fee to open the case.”

The DWP said the fee is waivered if the families affected have experienced any kind of domestic abuse, “ including controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour; psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse.”

In order to avoid dealing with her former partner directly, Gemma opted for the “Collect and Pay service” whereby payments are taken via direct debit or directly from the non-residential parents’ earnings or benefits. But Gemma said it took 10 months for her to receive a payment and after three months, they stopped entirely. 

Then in February last year, she discovered CMS had been sending payments to the wrong parent, a mistake she claims was not rectified until April that year. She added: “There was no way for me to recoup the money and instead I was offered an insulting conciliatory payment of £50.”

She was still left with an outstanding balance of almost £8,000. However, when she went to CMS for help she found they were “rude, dismissive and detached”.

She said: “I have frequently been reduced to tears, and suffered panic attacks and sleepless nights. Automated emails arrive late on Saturday evenings telling me that payment have not been made, leaving me fraught with worry about how I will pay my bills, with no way to contact the CMS about my case until Monday morning. 

“I have waited patiently for call backs that never came, and lodged three formal complaints that have been met with unsatisfactory, disingenuous apologies… I know that I am not alone in this unintelligible situation. I’ve had no choice but to accept that this will be an ongoing battle, but for the sake of my children and the thousands of other single-parent families out there who rely on this service, I refuse to give up on the pursuit of positive change.”

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‘There’s something wrong here’

Dr Davies told the committee that two-thirds of those on collect and pay arrangements cannot afford to pay the amount asked and therefore do not pay the amount requested in full. She said: “There’s something wrong when the amount that [the residential parent] is entitled to cannot be realistically paid.”

Further, Dr Jon Symonds, a senior lecturer at the University of Bristol who is currently undertaking a study into single-parent families with Professor Esther Dermott, a sociology and social policy specialist at the University of Bristol, said some parents in these situations are driven to despair so cannot emotionally, nor financially, support their children. 

He added that some children were sadly aware of their families’ financial circumstances, even when they were “quite young” which added “a stress on their wellbeing”. 

Both Dr Symonds and Professor Dermott emphasised during the meeting that the solution should be guided by the child’s care being at the centre, rather than an equalisation of the two parents’ income. 

Victoria Benson, Chief Executive of Gingerbread, the charity that supports single-parent families, told Express.co.uk: “It’s fair to say that the CMS isn’t working for anyone – neither paying nor receiving parents. While the cost of living crisis and pandemic before that has meant that some people may have difficulty meeting payments, many non-resident parents fail to pay their children what they are owed and many appear to take extreme steps to avoid paying.  The CMS doesn’t use its enforcement powers to deter this non-payment.

“It is essential that the CMS operates properly and ensures that maintenance payments owed to children are paid. This money owed to children plays a big part in protecting them from poverty… Payment of maintenance is even more critical at the current time when so many single parents are struggling to afford to support their families and more are at risk of falling further into poverty.”

When approached for comment by Express.co.uk, a DWP spokesperson said: “The Child Maintenance Service collected and arranged a record £1billion for children of separated parents last year, managing over half a million arrangements for over 800,000 children and helping to lift 140,000 children out of poverty each year.

“Payments are calculated so they are affordable according to a paying parents’ income and those who can afford to pay more must pay at a rate that reflects what they earn. We will continue to use our effective enforcement powers on those who don’t meet their obligations to their children.”