23 March 2010
Money paid to parents to support their children will no longer be taken into account when calculating benefit entitlement - meaning more money going direct to supporting the child. From April, income from child maintenance payments will be completely disregarded from benefit calculations.
Currently, parents are allowed to keep the first £20 of child maintenance per week before their benefits are reduced. Once the full disregard is introduced, the income from child maintenance will not affect benefits at all.
The disregard and earlier changes to child maintenance are expected to lift 100,000 more children out of poverty.
Secretary of State Yvette Cooper said:
"We want to do more to help families to get by during the recession. This will mean that money meant for children actually goes to the children. And it will help families sort out their own extra payments too whenever they can, without getting tied up in benefit changes.
"This is one more step in our fight against child poverty as we move towards enshrining our commitment to eradicating child poverty by 2020 in legislation."
Chief Executive of single parent charity Gingerbread Fiona Weir said:
"Gingerbread welcomes the Government's decision to allow children in the poorest families to receive the full value of any child maintenance paid by their non-resident parent. In everyday terms, it will mean that every penny paid in maintenance goes to the child and is expected to lift thousands more children out of poverty.
"Child maintenance makes a real difference to children's lives, helping to pay for basics such as shoes and nutritious food, and for important extras such as school trips."
The full disregard will encourage both parents to set up an effective maintenance arrangement and the non-resident parent to pay maintenance because all of the money will go to the children rather than the state.
Notes to Editors:
1.Parents with care in receipt of benefit are currently allowed to keep the first £20 of child maintenance per week, 'the disregard', before their benefits are reduced. From 12 April 2010 a full child maintenance disregard is being introduced, which means they can keep all the maintenance, which is paid without it affecting their benefits, unless it increases their savings to over £6,000.
2.This will affect parents with care who receive income related benefits including:
Job Seekers Allowance IB (income based)
Income Support
Employment Support Allowance IB (income based) 3.How it could work. Sample Case study:
Ann and Ian lived together with their daughter Emma. They split up and Ann started claiming Income Support for herself and Tax Credits for Emma.
Ian and Ann agreed that he should pay £30 per week maintenance directly to Ann, and she informed Jobcentre Plus.
Jobcentre Plus currently disregard the first £20 of the maintenance Ann receives so her benefit is reduced by £10.
After April 12th the maintenance Ian pays will be fully disregarded from the amount of benefits Ann receives. The introduction of the full disregard means Ann will receive the full amount of her benefits and will still receive the £30 per week maintenance directly from Ian.
Ann receives in total an extra £10 per week.
4.Parents with the care of children who are receiving benefits but do not have child maintenance arrangements in place are encouraged to contact the Child Maintenance Options service for information and support on the range of choices available. The service can be accessed online at
http://www.cmoptions.org/ or calling the free phone number 0800 988 0988 Media Enquiries: 0203 267 5136 Out of hours: 07659 108 883Website:
www.dwp.gov.ukCopyright © 2025 · All Rights Reserved · Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation
Warning: Undefined array key "User_id" in /home/irrvnet/public_html/forumalert/inc_footer.php on line 4