100 000 KIDS MISS OUT ON CARE CASH
LIFE IN LOCKDOWN
THE parents of at least 100,000 children are not getting cash from ex-partners to look after them.
The problem has spiralled during the lockdown and the Department of Work and Pensions is now refusing to take calls from desperate mums entitled to child maintenance payments. Some have even told us they are starving themselves to feed their children.
Officials have let non-resident parents cut or stop their payments, without providing any evidence they are earning less.
And shockingly, more than half of parents who receive child maintenance have been victims of domestic abuse.
Since lockdown began, the number of calls made to single parent charity Gingerbread’s helpline have rocketed 130 per cent.
After the DWP told parents it will take at least three months to probe their cases, one woman told how an adviser said she should contact her violent ex directly to ask for cash.
She said: “I don’t eat dinners, I have an occasional piece of toast. I wear leggings with holes in so I can feed my kids. Payments stopped completely [after] lockdown.”
Another victim, who is unable to work after her ex stalked her, said her payments stopped a month into the lockdown.
She told how she cried when footballer Marcus Rashford forced the Government to provide free school meals over the summer, knowing they would be a lifeline.
Labour MP Jess Phillips, shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, has written to the DWP to ask what methods are in place to assess the finances of those who claim they can’t pay.
She has also asked what steps have been taken to protect domestic abuse victims.
Ms Phillips said: “We have to stop abusers using financial incentives to carry on control. Where funds have been removed, at the very least the child maintenance service should have asked what that meant to them.”
The DWP said: “Those abusing the system will find themselves subject to the full extent of our enforcement powers.”
Voice of the Sunday People: P12