Absent parents owe £14m

CHILD maintenance debt in Oldham has topped £14milllion, according to new figures.

Oldham East and Saddleworth has been ranked as the 82nd worst parliamentary constituency in the country for child maintenance debt.

A total of £7,863,000 was owed to children by non-resident parents.

Oldham West and Royton came 219th owing a total of £6,502,000, which, when combined, totalled over £14m.

The Ashton constituency, which includes Failsworth, fared 48th worst owing £8,345,000.

The top spot in the league of shame was taken by Grimsby which had £11,069,000 child maintenance debts.

Nationally, there is a child maintenance ‘debt mountain’ of £3,761 million as of March 2010, of which around £1,065 million has been judged to be collectable.

Single parent charity Gingerbread obtained the nationwide league table of child maintenance debt from the House of Commons Library on Monday, after the issue was raised by Natascha Engel, MP for North East Derbyshire.

Fiona Weir, Gingerbread’s chief executive, said: “Child maintenance is vital for children in separated families.

“We know from single parents that this is much-needed money which pays for items such as children’s clothes, school meals, trips and activities and childcare.

“Ultimately the responsibility for paying child maintenance rests with the non-resident parent, but the Child Support Agency has to do its job too in collecting debts and enforcing payment.

“We want to help single parents caring for children take action to ensure their arrears are paid.

“They can phone our free Single Parent Helpline on 0808 802 0925 and get a ‘Top Tips’ leaflet on how to pursue their child maintenance arrears.”