Child maintenance changes expected to lift children out of poverty

14th April 2010

By Emily Watson
Children & Young People Now

Child maintenance payments will no longer be curtailed for parents receiving income support, under changes to the system.

Until now, parents on income support and jobseeker's allowance were only allowed to keep a maximum of £20 per week in child maintenance payments, regardless of what the other non-resident parent was contributing.

The £20 limit has led to reports of some parents being turned away from Jobcentre Plus because of their child maintenance payments.

Single-parent charity Gingerbread hopes the change, which comes into effect today, will provide a greater incentive for parents to increase payments, in the knowledge that all of the money will reach the child directly without a "Treasury take".

Gingerbread chief executive Fiona Weir was positive about the change and is calling on unemployed parents to renew their welfare claims to ensure they benefit from uncapped maintenance. "This means more money will go to the poorest children and that parents who have previously been unable to claim benefit because of the child maintenance they receive may now be entitled to claim," said Weir.

Gingerbread expects that this amendment to child maintenance payments alongside earlier changes will take 100,000 children out of poverty.