90 LOCAL FAMILIES STILL WAITING FOR MAINTENANCE

12.00.00am GMT Thu 31st Jan 2008

Commenting on the release of the Child Support Agency's quarterly figures, which reveal that 90 families within the Romsey constituency are still waiting to receive maintenance from before September 2007, local MP Sandra Gidley commented:

"The CSA is continuing to fail some of the most vulnerable children in the local area, placing them in severe financial hardship. The fact that some of these families are having to wait for so long as 16 months for their Child Support payments to begin is simply unacceptable.

"These figures are yet more evidence that the CSA is unable to provide children with the support that they so desperately need.

"With only two thirds of parents required to pay maintenance doing so, and one third of those not paying the full amount, the Government needs to fundamentally reform the system and give the CSA's enforcement functions to the HMRC.

"As long as Labour stubbornly continues to try to breathe life into an organization that has never worked, absent local parents will continue to evade their responsibilities and hundreds of children in Hampshire and Southampton will fall further into poverty."

ENDS