The Hidden Parent Poverty Trap: Child Maintenance and Universal Credit.
Visit the Centre for Social Justice Website to download the full report follow the link below:
It is common knowledge that financial burden can lead to people taking their own lives. The lack of joined up thinking within the same department leaves the Team at STOPSuicides speechless.
“The CSJ estimates that once Universal Credit is fully rolled out, more than 600,000 parents paying child maintenance more than half of all paying parents. will face marginal tax rates up to 107 per cent when child maintenance and UC are taken together.
While UC has improved the situation for paying parents, incentives to work are still all but removed when child maintenance is accounted for. This reduces the ability of the paying parent to earn more money to support their children and escape poverty.
This is compounded by outdated minimum income thresholds for the payment of child maintenance which were set in 1998. Unlike many countries, the UK has no “self-support” reserve factored into calculations; instead, minimum income thresholds for payment are set out in legislation which is now twenty years out of date. There has been no adjustment to take into account inflation over that period. This means paying parents are no longer able to maintain the standard of living they were initially intended (in law) to have and many face financial hardship.” – Centre for Social Justice