Petition: Make It a Criminal Offence to Deliberately Avoid Paying Fair Child Maintenance

Deanna Newell
Jun 14
3 min read

Updated: Jun 25

We call on the UK Government to reform the Child Maintenance System (CMS) and make it a criminal offence for paying parents to deliberately evade or manipulate maintenance payments - especially when it results in children being forced into poverty.

Why This Matters

Every child has a legal right to financial support from both parents. But the current CMS is outdated, ineffective, and routinely exploited—particularly by self-employed parents or company directors who under-report income to avoid paying fair support.

This isn’t a loophole. It’s a tactic. A form of post-separation economic abuse that allows some parents to maintain control long after a relationship ends.

As a result, countless children—many with disabilities such as Autism, ADHD, or Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)—are being pushed into poverty. Their primary carers, often mothers, are left to carry the full financial and emotional burden, while the system offers no real accountability for the non-paying parent.

We Demand:

Criminalisation of deliberate underpayment or avoidance of child maintenance through false income declarations or hidden assets.
Mandatory investigations where a parent’s lifestyle clearly exceeds their declared income.
Enforcement reform, including asset seizure, fines, and court prosecution for persistent offenders.
Legal recognition of non-payment as a form of economic abuse under domestic abuse legislation.
Greater transparency and accountability for self-employed and business-owning parents who manipulate finances.

Children Deserve Better

It should never be legal—or easy—for a parent to force their own child into poverty, particularly when that child has additional needs that require specialist care, therapies, or education.

Child maintenance is not a favour. It is a legal and moral obligation.

What Is Child Maintenance - and Why Is the System Failing?

When Financial Abuse Disguises Itself as “Fairness”

Child maintenance is designed to ensure children are financially supported by both parents after separation. If you bring a child into the world, you support them—emotionally, practically, and financially.

But in reality, the UK child maintenance system is broken—and it’s being actively exploited.

The System Is Being Abused

Many paying parents—particularly those who are self-employed or run businesses—report incomes just below the £12,570 tax-free threshold. Why? To avoid paying maintenance through the CMS.

Meanwhile, they live in large houses, go on luxury holidays, and post their lifestyles on social media. On paper, however, they claim to earn next to nothing.

This isn’t an accident. It’s a deliberate strategy to dodge financial responsibility—and to continue controlling an ex-partner through money.

Economic Abuse Is Still Abuse

Let’s be clear: this is economic abuse. It’s not just a financial dispute—it’s a continuation of coercive control.

Payments are missed or manipulated.
Enforcement is slow or non-existent.
Survivors are retraumatised, forced to chase support from former abusers.

And when disabled children are involved, the consequences are even more severe.

The Impact on Children with Additional Needs

Children with Autism, ADHD, SPD, or other special educational needs often require tailored support: therapy, equipment, smaller schools, and structured care. These all come with financial costs.

Many of these children are not suffering because both parents can’t provide—but because one parent won’t.

In families where the primary caregiver is also disabled—such as an autistic mother raising neurodivergent children—the strain is compounded. Navigating systems, education, EHCPs, and tribunals is exhausting. Doing it all with no financial support is not just unfair—it’s cruel.

It’s neglect. And it should be recognised as such.

The Child Maintenance System Enables Abuse

This is a national scandal.

The system that should protect children’s welfare is letting abusers:-

Declare false or misleading incomes
Conceal assets
Use non-payment as a weapon
Force children—especially disabled ones—into poverty

This isn’t just unjust. It’s dangerous.

Let’s Be Clear: This Is a Form of Child Abuse

Refusing to support your child isn’t “clever accounting.”

It isn’t “getting one over on your ex.”

It’s abuse.

If a parent forces their child—especially one with disabilities—into poverty as a form of punishment, that’s economic violence.

It’s time we stopped excusing it.

What Needs to Change

We need urgent reform of the CMS. That includes:

Investigating income-lifestyle discrepancies.
Enforcing payments with meaningful penalties.
Scrutinising the finances of business owners and self-employed payers.
Recognising non-payment as part of coercive control.
And above all, treating child maintenance as a child’s legal right, not a parental choice.

We Urge Parliament to Act Now

Close the loopholes.
Criminalise deliberate non-payment.
Protect the most vulnerable children.
End the financial abuse.

Children are not pawns. Child maintenance is not optional. And failure to pay must carry real consequences.

Deanna Newell Family Law

Advocacy for truth-tellers, survivors, and the children who deserve better