Why maintenance matters:
I recently found out about Gingerbread’s campaign, Maintenance Matters, and of course I had to learn more.
Here’s a copy of the letter I wrote via Gingerbread’s website. It’s adapted slightly from their stock letter; if you want to write your MP but don’t know what to say, the letter here does the hard work for you.
Dear Mr Jones,
I am writing to you as a mother, an Accrington resident and as a supporter of Gingerbread’s ‘Maintenance matters’ campaign to tell you about the millions of unpaid child maintenance owed to parents in Hyndburn.
This issue affects me personally – I have not received any maintenance for my son for the last 10 years – since he was two years old.
My former husband currently serves as a town councillor and represents the Conservative party. He styles himself as a pillar of the community, and would hate to have his non-payment of child maintenance exposed publicly. Yet he is able to ignore the CMS because of loopholes and lack of enforcement action – when a member of local government is able to flout the rules so flagrantly, it is clear that there is a serious problem in society.
In Hyndburn there’s a massive £4.2 million of unpaid child maintenance owed to parents with care. Child maintenance helps provide the basics for children including food, clothes, and keeping a home warm.
As your constituent, I want your help to make the UK’s child maintenance system work.
We need a fair child maintenance that puts children first. Please help by:
