‘Missing a trick’ on child poverty

New research has shown that the government could make huge progress in addressing the growing issue of child poverty in the UK by improving the collection of child maintenance.

In the wake of the forecast by the IFS that child poverty is set to rise dramatically, “Missing a trick?” shows that driving up the number of effective child maintenance agreements could be crucial to helping lift thousands of families out of poverty.

Analysis commissioned by Gingerbread shows that, of those in receipt, one in five single parent families whose income without child maintenance is below the poverty line, are lifted out of poverty by receiving it.   Low income groups benefit proportionately most from child maintenance, but are least likely to be receiving it.  Fewer than half of all eligible single parent families currently receive child maintenance.