Single parents’ charity Gingerbread has warned that proposals to charge for use of the future new Child Support Agency (CSA) will penalise many thousands of families who have no alternative but to use the Agency.

The government’s plans are intended to encourage more parents to try to make private maintenance arrangements rather than use the future Agency. However, a new survey of 849 Gingerbread members who went to the CSA found that the majority were only using the CSA because they were unable to make private arrangements for a range of different reasons, including the fact that the other parent refused to pay, or they did not know where the other parent was.

While most parents in the survey did try and make private arrangements when they separated, the survey also showed that, over time, the number of such arrangements tended to decline: the survey found that 68% of Gingerbread members who have been separated for six months have a private arrangement, but this figure falls to only 18% of those who have been separated for 9-10 years.

In order to incentivise more parents to make private maintenance arrangements, the government is proposing to charge single parents £100 upfront (£50 if on benefits) to apply to the future CSA, and to take a 7-12% slice of all maintenance payments they get that go through the Agency.

Earlier research from Gingerbread found that 46% of Gingerbread members who used the CSA said they could not afford the proposed charges and, of those, 72% said they would therefore have to go without maintenance altogether as they wouldn’t be able to make a private arrangement. Around 876,000 children currently receive support payments through the Child Support Agency.