Single parents owed almost half a BILLION in unpaid child maintenance – how much you should be getting

SINGLE parents are owed nearly half a billion pounds in unpaid child maintenance, new figures reveal.

An estimated £440 million is owed through Collect and Pay and £40million via Direct Pay, according to the National Audit Office.

1

Regardless of living arrangements, parents in the UK legally have to support their children financially.

Often, this means that one parent – usually the non-resident parent – will have to pay child maintenance to the other.

They still have to pay, even if they never see their children.

An estimated 3.6 million children from 2.4 million families live with only one parent.

The proportion of families without a child maintenance arrangement in place reached 44% in 2019-20, up from 25% nearly a decade ago.

Payments can be arranged privately, but if your ex is refusing to pay, or not paying what they should be, you can arrange payments through the Child Maintenance Service (CMS).

Around 800,000 are covered by a child maintenance arrangement through the CMS and last year it collected a record £1billion.

Payments through the CMS are made in tow ways: via Collect and Pay or Direct Pay.

Most read in Money

Collect Pay is when the CMS calculate, collect and pass on the payment and there’s a fee for this on top.

CMS can also make deductions if one parent fails to make a payment, which comes with an extra charge.

The parent living with the child and getting the payment also pays a fee.

Direct Pay is where the CMS calculates the amount but payments are arranged directly with parents and there are no fees involved.

A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pension (DWP) said: “The CMS puts children first – in the last 12 months a record £1 billion was collected and arranged through the service.

“Child maintenance payments help lift around 120,000 children out of poverty each year.

“More than a third of separated parents make their own arrangements without any government support which is better for families and the taxpayer, allowing CMS to focus on supporting parents where that arrangement wouldn’t work or those who won’t pay.”

Am I eligible for child maintenance and how much could I get?

If you’ve split up with the parent of your child, you will be eligible for child maintenance.

The exact amount will vary depending on a number of factors including how much the non-resident parent earns, how many kids you have and how many nights a week they look after them.

If both parents split childcare evenly with the same number of overnights, then no child maintenance will be paid through CMS – even if one parents earns more than the other.

But if you arrange things privately, a higher-earning parent may choose to contribute more financial to take care of their kids.

There is a useful CMS calculator that can help you work out how much you should be getting.

You’ll need to know how much the other parent earns (including state pension), any benefits they get, and the number of nights your children will be staying with them.

How long will they have to pay?

At the very least child maintenance, should be paid until a child reaches 16.

So if you have three children, the amount you get will be reduced as each child has their sixteenth birthday.

If your kids stay in full time education, such as school or college, then you can keep receiving the payments until they are 20.

University doesn’t count, so for many parents child maintenance stops at 18.

Of course, if you arrange things privately, you can decide to keep payments in place throughout university, though the paying parent may want the money to go directly to his or her kids.

How to claim and what if your ex won’t pay?

If you can’t agree an arrangement privately, or if your ex isn’t paying what they should – you can arrange payments through the Child Maintenance Service.

The government scheme will make an assessment based on your ex’s income and should backdate any missed payments.

The CMS can attempt to recover money owed by deducting payments directly from earnings or bank accounts or by freezing assets if needed.

If you need CMS to collect the money, you do need to pay a £20 fee and may need to stump up for additional costs.

This could include collection fees every time you get a payment.

If you’re under 19 or have been the subject of domestic violence you don’t need to pay the up-front fee.

If your partner refuses to co-operate with CMS then it can be escalated to court.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk