ALMOST 40 per cent of Bradford parents whose child maintenance payments are controlled by the Government failed to pay in the first three months of 2018, “shocking” new figures have revealed.

The statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions show 1,110 parents were due to pay support through the Child Maintenance Service’s Collect & Pay system between January and March, but only 680 – or 61 per cent – did.

Although the 39 per cent non-payment figure is a slight improvement on the 43.2 per cent of parents failing to pay in the last quarter of 2017, district MPs have branded them shocking and called for reform of the system.

Bradford East Labour MP Imran Hussain said child maintenance payments could make the difference between “heating and eating” for some families, and called for reform, along with Bradford South Labour MP Judith Cummins and Shipley Conservative MP Philip Davies.

Bradford has the second lowest rate of payment in West Yorkshire, and the joint 10th lowest rate in Yorkshire and the Humber.

However, the rate of non-payment in the district is below the national average of 60 per cent, and across Great Britain almost 220 local authorities have repayment rates that are worse than in Bradford.

Craven has the highest rate of failure to pay in Yorkshire and the Humber, with 54 per cent of parents not paying, followed by Ryedale at 50 per cent and Harrogate with 48 per cent.

Sheffield has the best rate of payment, with 32 per cent failing to pay.

The payment service, called Collect & Pay, is part of the Child Maintenance Service, which was set up in 2012 to replace the Child Support Agency.

The Child Maintenance Service calculates the amount of child support to be paid, and parents can arrange the payments between themselves through a mechanism called Direct Pay.

More than 2,000 parents in Bradford made Direct Pay arrangements over the first three months of this year, but in cases where parents cannot do this, or there is a disagreement about payment, the Collect & Pay service can collect and manage the payments between the parents. The Child Maintenance Service can take money from a parent’s earnings or their bank account if they try to avoid making payments, or take a parent to court.

Over the three-month period to March, about 3,080 parents required the intervention of the Child Maintenance Service to make payments.

At the end of March, two-thirds of paying parents in the Child Maintenance Service were using Direct Pay and one third the Collect & Pay Service, with three per cent of paying parents using both services.

Single parent charity Gingerbread said the latest figures for parents with outstanding child support debts were “worryingly high”.

Sumi Rabindrakumar, research officer at Gingerbread, said: “Child maintenance alone lifts a fifth of low-income single-parent families out of poverty.But sadly, we regularly hear from single parents whose children are not receiving the support they are owed even when using the Collect & Pay service.

“The Child Maintenance Service must put in place stronger systems and resource to make sure that children do not go without the financial support they need.”

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MP Mr Hussain said maintenance payments were “vital” for many single parents trying to raise their children alone.

“They can often make the difference on whether they fall into poverty and whether they have to make the choice between heating and eating for the sake of their child, so it is shocking that so many payments are not being made,” he said.

“Single parents face considerable challenges already, with childcare, employment and financial issues created and compounded when they are the sole parent, and the Child Maintenance Service needs much stronger processes in place to ensure that payments are not missed.”

Shipley MP Philip Davies said: “The Child Maintenance Service and its predecessor the Child Support Agency have been failing organisations pretty much from their inception and I get a huge volume of casework from their failings.

“I have repeatedly called for them to do much better at getting money from absent parents who contribute nothing for their children, instead of constantly pursuing parents who are already paying as they seem to do.

“I have discussed these failings with the new Minister in charge of the CMS, Kit Malthouse, and I know he is working hard to resolve the long-standing problems.

“If any Shipley constituent is experiencing problems with the CMS, if they contact me I will happily pursue their case for them.”

Bradford South MP Mrs Cummins said: “The Government must look again at how this system is working so that children are getting the best support possible.”