Exclusive: Deadbeat dads will not be chased for £3 billion as ministers write off bad debts

DEADBEAT dads will have more than £3 billion worth of child maintenance written off under ministers’ plans, we can reveal.

The Government wants to write off the cash owed to nearly one million families across the UK because they fear there is no chance of recouping it.

The disastrous Child Support Agency (CSA) was replaced in 2012 but left debts of £3.7bn in maintenance payments skipped by absent parents.

Around £1.2bn of that cash is owed to the public purse and ministers want the Treasury to write this off.

A further £2.2bn is owed to families and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is also expecting to cancel the bulk of this debt too.

Ministers threaten to seize passports if child support dodgers refuse to pay up

Under the proposals, revealed in a DWP report, if parents don’t reply to official letters within 60 days then the debts – some of which date back more than 20 years – will be automatically written off.

One in five of the people who approached Citizens Advice Scotland about child support payments last year were chasing outstanding CSA debts.

John Fotheringham, a solicitor with Morton Fraser and one of Scotland’s top family law experts, said: “There will be a lot of anger about this.

“The mother, and it usually is a mother, has had to bring up these children without money which the Government has said they should have, and money the Government promised they would go and get for them – and then didn’t.”

The DWP consultation document shows £2.5bn of CSA debt is owed to parents in around 970,000 cases. A further 320,000 cases have debts worth £1.2bn owed to the UK Government.

Ministers propose writing off the cash owed to the taxpayer as the “costs associated with attempting collection are high, and the vast majority of the debt is now considered uncollectable”.

Of the near one million parents still owed CSA cash where there is currently no payment, around a third will be cancelled automatically as the DWP has deemed the amounts too small to be worthwhile chasing.

This move would see around £100m of the debt written off.

There are an estimated 475,000 cases, with £2.2bn worth of debt, where the DWP would offer parents a “final chance” to ask the DWP to chase the outstanding maintenance cash.

The Government department would write to those affected and if they do not respond within 60 days of the first correspondence then the debt will be written off.

This approach will apply to non-paying cases with CSA debt over £500 if the case is less than 10 years old, and with debt over £1000 if the case is 10 or more years old.

Sunday Post View: Why did society even need a Child Support Agency?

The DWP estimates that of the £2.2bn owed to families in this category around £1.9bn would be written off for those who do not progress to the collection stage.

The CSA was replaced in 2012 by a system run by the Child Maintenance Service as ministers tried to draw a line under its record of backlogs and poor customer service.

Satwat Rehman, director of the One Parent Families Scotland charity, said: “We are extremely disappointed that once again, instead of addressing the issues with the Child Maintenance Service, the Government is choosing to suggest measures that would not solve the problems but instead are allowing parents to deny their children the essential support they need.”

Meanwhile, Citizens Advice Scotland advised on child support payments on 2612 occasions last year with more than 500 of these issues related to CSA debts.

As of June last year, arrears from cases with the CSA in Scotland were reported at £240.7 million.

A DWP spokeswoman said: “We spend £30m a year maintaining the old failing CSA systems where most of the debt relates to children who are now adults, and it would cost the Government a further £1.5bn to attempt to recover it.

“This situation is unsustainable, and that’s why we are consulting on options to address it.”

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May’s Story

A single mum who struggled for 18 years to properly feed and clothe her daughter has described the Government’s decision to write off the payments as a “gross betrayal” and a “slap in the face”.

May, 65, from Govan, Glasgow, received not a single penny for the support and upkeep of her daughter, now 27.

She said the Government agency did “little or nothing” to help her recover more than £30,000 owed.

She said: “When my daughter was born, I was put under immense pressure to name her father so he could be pursued to pay child support, even though I explained that we had split up because he had been violent towards me while I was pregnant.

“I remember being distressed after being told if I didn’t name him and give his details, my own benefit would be cut, leaving us with nothing to live on.

“Despite being put under that pressure, nothing was ever collected and passed to me.

“As the years rolled on, it became clear we weren’t a priority.

“We always did our best to make sure my daughter had toys and clothes, and that she was able to go on school trips.

“But that was paid for by my family, not her father.

“Every penny had to be a prisoner.

“The Government should hang their heads in shame for writing off the money owed to families like us.

“It could have changed our lives.”

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Ellin’s Story

Ellin was just nine-months-old when her dad walked out on her and mum Anne in 1985, leaving them destitute.

Anne, 59, and Ellin, now 33, which are not their real names, of Paisley, know that without Anne’s parents, life would have been impossible.

Anne said: “He went away with another woman. My parents did everything as I hadn’t a bean.

“From the day he walked out, I haven’t seen a brass penny from him.

“When the CSA got involved he told them he wasn’t working. He was – he had his own property businesses.

“He married the other woman and had two more children. Then he left her and had another child with someone else.”

Anne is furious that debts owed to millions of parents are to be written off.

She said: “This money should be paid to the children who were wronged. They should be giving their children the support they lacked by making good for it now.”