Separating couples need better support services, warns Fatherhood Institute
Janaki Mahadevan
Monday, April 18, 2011
Charging separating couples to use child maintenance services will only benefit children if support services are overhauled, the Fatherhood Institute has warned.
In its response to the government’s consultation on the child maintenance green paper, which closed earlier this month, the institute agreed that introducing charges would incentivise couples to avoid conflict and would therefore be beneficial for children.
But the charity added that any new approach to child maintenance should be accompanied by an integrated support service that helps parents understand their responsibilities and rights, set up contact arrangements, meet children’s needs and negotiate money management and the benefit system.
Rob Williams, Fatherhood Institute chief executive, said: "If parents can reduce the conflict between each other then they will be much better placed to do well for their children. Charging would be a great incentive but it would be very unfair if you don’t improve the services available to separating couples.
"At the moment couples don’t get much help to reach their own financial solution so they end up going by default to the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission system. In the future they will still have to do that unless they get more support much earlier on about how to reach a viable financial settlement."
Williams added that while the government’s green paper contains detail on introducing charges to the system it is less clear about how support services will be improved.
The institute is now recommending that a national information website and telephone helpline be introduced that gives access to information for separating parents as well as online advisers who are aware of the different needs of parents. It also recommends local face-to-face services as well as an expansion of more specialised interventions for families with particular difficulties.
But single-parent campaigner Justine Mensa-Bonsu said no amount of support services will help some single parents. Mensa-Bonsu collected more than a 1,000 signatures opposed to the introduction of fees for child maintenance services.
"Of course it is a good idea to give people advice and assistance and where possible to work out problems themselves but it has to be appreciated that for some people that is just not possible through no fault of their own," she said. "The green paper says that 51 per cent of carer parents feel they could reach an amicable arrangement with the right support but that means half of the people using the service feel they can’t reach an arrangement no matter what support is available. So this is going to have a huge impact."