GINGERBREAD REPORT ON CHILD MAINTENANCE SERVICE

Early day motion 575, tabled 19 October 2016 by Caroline Lucas (Green). Signed by 97 members.

That this House welcomes the report from the charity Gingerbread, entitled Missing maintenance; notes that when child maintenance goes unpaid by a parent, children lose out; deplores the disastrous record of the Child Support Agency in collecting unpaid child maintenance, which has resulted in almost £4 billion of outstanding arrears; believes that, with nearly half of paying parents in the new child maintenance system owing arrears, the new Child Maintenance Service is already underperforming on its collection of such arrears; and calls on the Government to use the income from collection fees to bring about a substantial improvement in enforcement action over the next three years, with clear annual debt collection targets for both Child Support Agency and Child Maintenance Service debts.

Signatures by party: Scottish National Party 42, Labour 32, Liberal Democrat 6, Conservative 4, Labour/Co-operative 4, Plaid Cymru 3, Social Democratic and Labour Party 3, DUP 1, Green 1, Independent 1.