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Thursday, September 9, 2010 |
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Child benefit changes could increase poverty warns charity |
by www.cypnow.co.uk - added 27/10/2008 |
Changes to child benefit which kick in today could increase child poverty according to charity One Parent Families/Gingerbread.
From today single parents on benefit have to decide whether to continue receiving benefit from the Child Support Agency, make private arrangements with the child's father or do without child maintenance.
One Parent Families/ Gingerbread, which provides support for single parent families, said research from the National Centre for Social Research showed that up to one in four single parents on benefits might stop using the Child Support Agency after the reforms are introduced. The reforms are designed to simplify the benefits system. The charity said it supported the move towards voluntary arrangements for those parents who can come to a fair and sustainable agreement, but feared "the Government may be too keen to reduce the numbers of poor families using the Child Support Agency, without considering whether the children involved will get the child maintenance they need."
Fiona Weir, chief executive of One Parent Families/ Gingerbread, said: "We fear that many poor single parents on benefit will struggle to agree private child support arrangements and their children may end up doing without. This would be disastrous for the children involved and for the Government's child poverty targets."
From November 1 the Child Support Agency's functions will transfer to the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.
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