Independent child maintenance system needed to replace 'adversarial, slow court cases'

The disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on one-parent families has led to  fears it could push some households into poverty.

The government has been told to establish a statutory independent child maintenance system, with an umbrella group claiming it is needed to replace "expensive, adversarial, slow court cases where there is a lack of consistency and very little enforcement".

The call is being made today by the National One-Parent Family Alliance (NOPFA), which formed last year to highlight what it said was the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on one-parent families and fears it could push some households into poverty.

The members of the National One Parent Family Alliance are Barnardos, Children’s Rights Alliance, FLAC, Focus Ireland, National Women’s Council, One Family, Society of St Vincent de Paul, SPARK and Treoir and the group has published a position paper on child maintenance to the Murphy Review. That Review Group, set up by the government last year, is chaired by former Circuit Court Judge Catherine Murphy and is due to submit its report to Minister for Social protection, Heather Humphreys, later this year.

NOPFA said the effects of missing or late child maintenance payments can be very damaging to families, but "child maintenance is seen largely as a personal, parental obligation and therefore a matter of private Family Law".

"There is no state agency with responsibility for child maintenance payments and pursuit of maintenance is left up to the claiming parent on behalf of their child. Where a maintenance agreement cannot be reached by parents privately, they are forced to seek maintenance through an adversarial, costly and time-consuming court system," it said.

The group said there was a significant rate of non-compliance with child maintenance orders, delays in the courts system and high costs.

Poor enforcement

It also said there was poor enforcement and that the interaction of maintenance with the social welfare system "creates additional barriers to lone parents in receipt of social welfare payments".

It said the solution was "a Statutory Maintenance Agency or equivalent mechanism to take maintenance out of the private sphere and ensure the State is responsible for assessment and enforcement of child maintenance".

Another recommendation is that where a liable parent does not pay or does not have sufficient income to pay the required maintenance payment, the State should take on the liability and ensure maintenance is paid.

Karen Kiernan, Chair of the Alliance and CEO of One Family said: “ It is not acceptable that parents have to fight with each other in expensive court cases when there are models in most other countries of independent statutory systems.” 

The Department does operate a Maintenance Recovery Unit, but it only operates in a small number of cases involving the One-Parent Family (OFP) payment.

Last year it examined 6,179 cases, and in just over half of those cases it found that the liable relatives were not in a position to contribute towards the cost of the OFP or have no liability due. "Of these cases 311 liable relatives were either living outside the State or could not be traced and in 171 cases the liable relative was unknown and no further action could be taken," the Department said.

It said that last year 1,075 arrangements were made whereby payments or additional payments were made to the One-Parent Family payment recipient averaging €49.45 per week and in a further 49 cases, the liable relatives began paying the Department directly at an average weekly payment of €74.82.