Petition to criminalise those who refuse to financially support their children. Please sign to get the ball rolling.

[CreviceImp]

Dear Kerry Howard,

You’re not done yet!

Forward the email below to your potential supporters.

5 people need to click the link and confirm their support for us to publish your petition.

Thanks,
The Petitions team
UK Government and Parliament

I’ve made a petition – will you sign it?

Click this link to sign the petition:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/125688/sponsors/qBY8kE9yBaWIHzJUfdb5

My petition:

Non-resident parents who fail to pay child maintenance should be criminalised.

Non-resident parents with the financial means who repeatedly fail to financially support their child/ren should be prosecuted for child neglect. Failure to contribute towards housing,clothing and feeding your child/ren constitutes child abuse and should be criminalised accordingly.

Thanks in advance x 🙂

[NewLife4Me]

Bump

[CreviceImp]

Will update if they pass this one so those who want to support it can x

[CreviceImp]

Please lend your support to the new petition. They needed it more specific it would appear.....

Think this might leave no area for confusion



Dear Kerry Ann Howard,

You’re not done yet!

Forward the email below to your potential supporters.

5 people need to click the link and confirm their support for us to publish your petition.

Thanks,
The Petitions team
UK Government and Parliament

I’ve made a petition – will you sign it?

Click this link to sign the petition:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/126895/sponsors/r7SMKHriuAeTVvQ0al

My petition:

Charge non-resident parents who evade child support payments with child neglect.

Current legislation does not recognise non-payment of child support as neglect. After a year of non-compliance separate criminal charges should be brought against such non-resident parents for child neglect. Resident parents should also be able to prosecute non-compliant NRP for financial abuse.

Figures from 2011 indicate that 95.2% of parents who approached the Child Support Agency in order to access their legal entitlement for child maintenance were female. The failure to collect rates are astonishing. It is therefore a gender inequality issue. This social injustice needs to be urgently addressed.The far reaching repercussions have to be legally recognised for both the parent with care and the child/ren when one parent fails to support their child/ren. It is neglect and abuse.

Click this link to sign the petition:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/126895/sponsors/r7SMKHriuAeTVvQ0al

[SofiaAmes]

neonrainbow here in the USA it is fairly standard everywhere that both parents have equal rights to be the primary carer and/or 50/50 custody is the norm, but that doesn't mean that supplemental support payments from one parent to the other isn't required in some cases. If one of the parents is extremely low income, it doesn't mean that they don't have an equal right to have 50% custody and it might mean that they might need financial aid to care for the children. If the financial aid doesn't come from the other parent, it ends up coming from the government which means we all pay when parents are not adequately caring for their children.
It's not uncommon that one parent (in the past, it has traditionally been the woman, but this is changing) stops work to be a full time carer for the children. This means that when the parents split, even if the custody is 50/50, that parent will still need financial support to care for the children during the 50% of the time that they have them. Here, the courts will look at the situation and very readily impute income to a parent who could work (because the kids are in school and/or old enough to not need a high level of care). The court will also consider both parents' earning history and potential.

[russetbella1000]

I want to sign but it's saying I can't?!

[neonrainbow]

I would support a petition to somehow encourage society to shift the view that mothers should be the primary carer and that EOW is sufficient for the dad. If more people started from a position of 50/50 care then in that scenario nobody would need to pay maintenance to anyone.

[neonrainbow]

I don't think you need me to go through all the types of child abuse and compare them to the situation where we have the rp having to support the kids because the nrp doesn't pay. Morally it's really poor but it isn't child abuse is it? If anything it's financial abuse of the resident parent.

[DontcarehowIwantitnow]

Too many men can walk away too easily, and it's too easy for them and their new partners to blame the RP and make the children suffer

As do women.

The petition doesn't state father or mother. It is neutral. As it should be!

[wibblywobbler]

I absolutely agree with it. Like a previous poster said, those who have a problem with it are most likely a NRPs' new wife/partner and they don't want their household income to go down

To the previous poster who said a criminal record would affect the income a NRP could get which would mean less for the child, if the child isn't receiving anything or the right amount, they're no worse off. But the prospect of a criminal record and a ruined career might prompt a feckless father into supporting a child they fathered. And embarrass and shame them and their new partners into honouring their responsibilities.

Too many men can walk away too easily, and it's too easy for them and their new partners to blame the RP and make the children suffer

[CreviceImp]

LizKeen -There are many different forms of child abuse. I think not financially supporting your child/ren constitutes a very real form of child abuse and that is what I was challenging with my statement.

It is time for people to stop making light of this very serious issue and making diabolical ill thought through statements themselves.

[LizKeen]

You have just lost me with that OP.

What your ex has done is despicable, but it is nothing close to the abuse and neglect that so many children are suffering on a daily basis. And to compare the two, well I am sorry but that is diabolical.

[CreviceImp]

Define 'real child abuse'.

[neonrainbow]

It's hard enough to get a conviction for real child abuse without wasting the courts minimal resources on this.

[SofiaAmes]

I think that a paternity test is only done if paternity is questioned. The RP does need to state who the NRP is to get benefits, but if they can't track down the NRP or get money out of the NRP, the RP still gets their benefits.

[VertigoNun]

I suspect you will have posters OP who are second/third partners of NRP on your thread who don't want their partner to be public ally viewed as a child abuser nor do they want their standard of life reduced.

[DontcarehowIwantitnow]

this government will then use it as a reason to include maintenance in any means test - which makes the resident parent vulnerable

I do think that this could be a down side to it.

[CreviceImp]

Unless you are going to expand on why you don't agree with the petition and offer genuine debate I am not sure why you have felt the need to contribute.

[CreviceImp]

If the government were to include it in any means test then the government should pay the calculated maintenance figure to the parent with care and then seek collection from the NRP.

I can imagine the rates of collection being much more successful and rigorously enforced if that was the case ......

[LifeofI]

Dont agree with it so wont be signing it.

[ghostyslovesheep]

I don't agree either - because this government will then use it as a reason to include maintenance in any means test - which makes the resident parent vulnerable

[VertigoNun]

The petition will get debate going and hopefully an improved system.

[BarbarianMum]

I agree with criminalising it but as financial abuse rather than neglect.

Doesn't have to be prison - could be weekend community service. Or weekend prison, even - they have that in some countries: work Mon-Fri, weekend in prison. And no one need be criminalised, it's a choice they make if they refuse to pay what they owe or lie about earnings to avoid payment.

[ciabattav0nbreadstickz]

I think that system seems much better Sofia and it would be great if we adopted that here in the UK.

Am I right in thinking that in order to set up child support a DNA test is done as standard procedure? I also think this is a good idea.

[CreviceImp]

Hi it has gone well above the required signatures and they are still being noted.

I will post a link here when it is published.

Thank-you everyone again for your continued contributions and support. It's all very helpful in opening this up to debate.

[SofiaAmes]

Here in the USA, enforcing child support payments is soooo much easier than in the UK. Once an order for support has been issued by the court, then if the parent doesn't pay, they can have their wages docked or lose their driver license or get put in jail. Showing compliance with child support payments is in any basic job application, or receiving government benefits.
I can't understand why anyone thinks there shouldn't be a system of enforcement.