This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Rejected petition Make Child Maintenance consider cost of living for the Paying Parent.
The Child Maintainence Service/ Child Support Allowance must consider the costs of living for the paying parent and be realistic in considering what the parent must pay to the claimant.
The harsh penalties of not doing so is too extreme for the reckless calculations of the CMS/CSA.
More details
For too long Child Maintainence has calculated how much the paying parent should pay the claimant based on the amount of GROSS pay that the paying parent earns. This is before tax, NI, food costs, phone bill (essential for work) and other costs.
Many people have had to sell possessions, cut their food shopping in half or do illegal things to earn that income to support themselves.
Some people have become depressed by this and have taken their lives because they can't afford to live it.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.
Petitions need to call on the Government or Parliament to take a specific action.
We understand that you are concerned about how child maintenance is calculated, but it's not clear how you want this to be changed.
You could start a new petition explaining clearly what you would like the Government or Parliament to do. For example, by increasing the threshold where people start paying more than £7 a week, or reduce the percentage of gross income paying parents are replied to pay in child maintenance, or basing calculations on net income.
We have published the following petitions, which you might like to sign:
Exclude overtime and bonuses from income to calculate child maintenance payment: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/560536
Reform child maintenance – flat rates per child per night: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/560401
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.