Deidre Sanders launches campaign to promote Child Maintenance Options

18/01/2010

Top agony aunt backs support service for separating parents

Britain's most widely read 'agony aunt' – Deidre Sanders of The Sun's Dear Deidre problem page – has launched a national campaign to help separated families make effective child maintenance arrangements.

Child Maintenance Options is a free and impartial public service providing confidential information and support. It helps separating parents decide what the best maintenance arrangement is to best suit their own circumstances.

The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that around 300,000 couples with children separate each year. Child Maintenance Options is designed to help them as well as parents who have already separated and want to review existing arrangements.

The Child Maintenance Options service is also for the relatives, friends and advisers of parents going through separation. It can signpost people to other sources of support on issues such as family separation, debt, housing, and employment.

Research carried out by YouGov, to mark the campaign launch, found amongst the separated parents questioned with children aged 18 or below and who did not have to use the CSA, 93% agreed mothers and fathers should remain financially responsible for their children even when they don't live with them. But over a third (36%) they did not know where to get information about child maintenance.

This week Deidre visited the Child Maintenance Options site in South Yorkshire where she spoke to the specialists who provide the service and listened in to calls:

I know how emotionally draining separation and divorce can be for parents and children from the thousands of letters and emails I receive from readers of The Sun and my work with the Kids in the Middle campaign.

says Deidre.

It's hard to be practical when feelings are running high, but sorting out good care arrangements and financial support for the children is essential. The Options Service is a place parents can turn to for free and impartial information and support so they can decide what's right for their family situation. It's the first of its kind.

Deidre's visit to the CM Options centre marks the beginning of a three month national campaign to promote the service on television, radio and in the press. The launch has also been welcomed by The Herald newspaper in Scotland which said

such excellent initiatives as Child Maintenance Options must make themselves as prominent as possible if they are to carry out the life-changing work they have been set up to provide.

Research has also shown that around half of the separated parents questioned said relations improved with their ex (28%) and their children (29%) when an effective child maintenance arrangement was put in place.

Chair of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission which runs the CM Options service, Janet Paraskeva, says:

We're really pleased to have Deidre onboard helping us get the message across to parents that information and support is out there for them. Deidre has been instrumental in helping establish Child Maintenance Options over the last year by signposting her readers to the service. Too many children still don't benefit from regular child maintenance, we hope this service will help change that.

Case Studies

Emma Dawson, from Stafford, separated from her partner last year and didn't know where to go for help. She said

We were overwhelmed by all the confusing information on the net about child maintenance. Child Maintenance Options put it in easy to understand, plain terms, setting out all the various choices available. Now we have a private arrangement in place and we are really pleased with it. Instead of my ex buying nappies or baby food, I get regular cash payments. Options was absolutely brilliant.

Mark Manuel, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire separated from the mother of his two children in October last year. He said

You have to sit down and work it out with the other parent, or you get a third party making your decisions for you. The information I got from Child Maintenance Options was brilliant - there is nothing else out there which sets it all out so clearly. I really liked the signposting to other information sources, and the maintenance calculator which indicates how much you would have to pay if you used the CSA. Now I pay my maintenance by standing order, and we've agreed to have a review of our arrangement early this year (2010).

Since October 2008 all parents, including those in receipt of benefits, are free to make their own maintenance arrangements as an alternative to using the statutory service (currently administered by the Child Support Agency) or the courts.

To contact the Child Maintenance Options service go to www.cmoptions.org or call the freephone helpline on 0800 988 0988 (open Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm, and Saturday 9am to 4pm).