Calls for agency to help lone parents

A group representing one-parent families is demanding a statutory maintenance agency after a survey showed that some families are owed as much as €6,000 per child.

The survey, while small-scale, showed that almost three-quarters of the children involved are not receiving regular maintenance payments.

The survey was conducted by Spark Ireland. The results were revealed at its inaugural conference, ‘Crisis in Lone Parent Families’, in Dublin’s Liberty Hall.