Absent parents DO pay

12 April 2006

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Suggestions that 70% of absent parents don’t pay maintenance have been rubbished by the CSA, this week, as new figured have been released, saying that the image of the feckless father is rarer than we think.

In Fact, it’s thought that as many as 70% DO pay maintenance regularly, and a child is more likely to have a feckless Mother than a feckless Father, though only by a 1% margin.

Of all absent parents, 30% of fathers are persistent maintenance dodgers, whilst 31% of absent mothers don’t help to pay for their childrens’ upbringing.

The Department for Work and Pensions said: "These figures are a running total showing where the agency's collection service has had to intervene to warn people they were in arrears. Previous figures suggesting that 70% of absent fathers were nonpayers were a misinterpretation which the agency has tried to correct."

Detailed figures released to the Guardian newspaper show that it is still predominantly men who leave the family home. But they show that previous figures claiming 70% of men refuse to pay anything are the reverse of the situation - 70% of all absent parents are paying some maintenance.

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