Rejected petition Make non payment of child support a criminal offence

Rejected on 2 January 2024

I would like the DWP to become accountable if they do not use powers to enforce payments to children and be made to pay the main parent themselves and recoup the monies from the parent who is withholding child support. DWP are quick to retrieve overpayment on benefits but not child maintenance

Purposefully withholding child support payments is financial abuse for both main parent and the child. In some cases the main parent has already been subjected to abuse in some way (domestic violence, financially, verbally etc etc) and when the relationship finally ends the financial abuse continues by not supporting the child involved. It is a criminal offence to watch TV without a licence yet withholding financial support for a child is only a civil matter even though it causes child poverty

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/646601

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.