Petition Make non-payment of child maintenance a criminal offence

We want the Government to make non-payment of child maintenance a criminal offence, so that parents who withhold child maintenance when they have the means and capacity to pay can be pursued through the criminal justice system. We believe this would help prevent non-payment.

More details

Withholding child maintenance from the parent who ensures all the child/children's needs are met should be made a criminal offence akin to child neglect /abuse. Pursuing non-payment of child maintenance through the Child Maintenance Service and courts can take months of even years for payment to be enforced. We believe that this is not acceptable, and that making non-payment of child maintenance a criminal offence could help prevent non-payment.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

177 signatures

Show on a map

10,000

Date closed 9 April 2024
Get petition data (json format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.