The child maintenance payments system needs “immediate and radical” reform. This conclusion of the report of the State Review Group on Child Maintenance, published recently, reflects the experience of many parents and those involved with the family law courts.
The Government has given a welcome undertaking to immediately implement the review group’s recommendations, including that child maintenance should not be assessed as means or income for the purposes of any Department of Social Protection social assistance scheme.
The group was unable to reach a consensus on whether a new agency should be established to deal with child maintenance claims, with four of the seven members favouring a new agency while three believed cases should continue to be dealt with by the courts under a reformed system. The Law Society is among various entities who have supported the establishment of a dedicated agency.
The Government has also promised a review of the effectiveness of child maintenance payment orders.
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Unpaid child maintenance is a particular problem for lone parents on social welfare and, on a near daily basis, the family law courts hear distressing accounts of the impact of this on parents and children. In a recent case before a Dublin district family court, maintenance payment arrears had reached €28,000.
Women, and it is mainly women, are left with little choice but to make regular applications to the courts in an effort to enforce payment orders against the fathers of their children and to recover arrears.
As several judges have observed, many mothers are at their wits’ end. One mother of four young children sought the issuing of a bench warrant in Christmas week for the arrest of the father of her children who failed to attend court to answer claims over allegedly not having paid maintenance for months. “It’s just a constant battle,” the frustrated woman told the judge.
Around 8,000 maintenance cases came before the courts in 2019, according to the Courts Service. The Growing Up In Ireland Survey of the same year found 50 per cent of parents get no help of any kind from an absent partner, 36 per cent received a regular payment and just 14 per cent receive the payments they need. The 2020 Survey on Income and Living Conditions showed the consistent poverty rate for one-parent households was 21.6 per cent compared to 8 per cent for the population.
This context underlines the urgency of ensuring the effectiveness of child maintenance orders and it is to be hoped that the promised review of this particular problem will be concluded without delay. The welfare of children is at stake.