Single parent charity Gingerbread has obtained a nationwide league table of child maintenance debt showing, by parliamentary constituency, just how much money is owed to children by non-resident parents across the country.
In total, there is a child maintenance ‘debt mountain' of £3,761 million, of which around £1,065 million has been judged to be collectable.
Commenting on the figures, Gingerbread's Chief Executive Fiona Weir said: "Child maintenance is vital for children in separated families. We know from single parents that this is much-needed money which pays for items such as children's clothes, school meals, trips and activities and childcare.
"Ultimately the responsibility for paying child maintenance rests with the non-resident parent, but the Child Support Agency has to do its job too in collecting debts and enforcing payment."
As of March 2010, the national league table reveals that the top twenty constituencies where most maintenance is owed:
Constituency |
Amount owed |
Great Grimsby |
£11,069,000 |
Milton Keynes South West |
£ 10,495,000 |
Blackpool South |
£10,370,000 |
Telford |
£ 10,196,000 |
Thurrock |
£ 10,155,000 |
Kingston upon Hull East |
£ 10,044,000 |
Gloucester |
£ 9,710,000 |
Leeds Central |
£ 9,612,000 |
Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle |
£ 9,559,000 |
Croydon North |
£ 9,478,000 |
Halton |
£ 9,452,000 |
Cannock Chase |
£ 9,375,000 |
Rochford and Southend East |
£9,330,000 |
North East Milton Keynes |
£ 9,330,000 |
Great Yarmouth |
£ 9,317,000 |
Southampton, Itchen |
£ 9,269,000 |
Portsmouth South |
£ 9,243,000 |
West Bromwich West |
£ 9,233,000 |
Hastings and Rye |
£ 9,194,000 |
Birmingham, Ladywood |
£ 9,184,000 |