Tough talk on child support is failing to deliver
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Your support makes all the difference.Only one absent parent has lost their driving licence for failing to make child support payments, a year after ministers introduced the penalty as part of a crackdown on those who do not pay towards their children's upbringing.
Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions show that only 58 court applications to withdraw a driving licence from non-payers have been made since the threat was introduced in April last year.
Yesterday, ministers were accused of "talking tough but doing too little" to increase donations from nearly 500,000 parents who do not make full payments towards their children's upbringing.
The figures were revealed in a parliamentary written answer from Malcolm Wicks, a Work and Pensions minister. Of the 58 parents prosecuted, 21 started paying child support while three were given suspended orders. Other cases ended with suspended sentences being imposed.
Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman, said the situation was the latest in a long line of failures at the Child Support Agency (CSA). "This is another example of Labour talking tough, but failing to deliver. The shambles that is the Child Support Agency means that thousands of children are not getting the financial support that is theirs by right."
Government figures show 1,060,000 non-resident parents should be making payments to the CSA to help cover their children's upkeep. But 48 per cent pay nothing, or less than the full amount they owe. Non-payers have been threatened with jail under a new offence of non co-operation with the CSA, also introduced last year.
The threat to suspend driving licences is one of a series of high-profile initiatives to crack down on crime and anti-social behaviour. Tony Blair was attacked recently over proposals to cut benefits for parents of persistent truants and remove housing benefits from "neighbours from hell". The Government was also criticised for proposals to march drunken offenders to cash machines to extract on-the-spot fines.
Kate Green, the director of the National Council for One Parent Families, said: "The Government needs to focus on putting proper resources into the CSA so that the new formula and better compliance rates become a reality. Lone parents are facing an anxious time, waiting for news of the reform programme and of when money will start to flow through to their children."
A spokesman for the Work and Pensions Department said more cases were going to court. The powers were a deterrent, she said. "We do not want to remove people's driving licences. We want people to support these children. These powers are a last resort."
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