Children 'in poverty' as 70,000 fail to pay support

THOUSANDS of children are languishing in poverty because negligent parents are failing to pay child maintenance, latest figures have suggested.

- By Jonathan Walker

There are 70,000 parents failing to pay any of the fees they owe to the Child Maintenance Service, leaving 173,000 children without support, while another 50,000 parents pay less than 90%.

But the CMS is failing to collect the money despite having tough powers to force parents to pay.

Recent official figures showed £28.1million went uncollected over a three-month period.