OVER 1,500 families living in Devon could save enough in child maintenance fees to buy the young person involved a car, driving lessons and insurance, if only they took action to seek a voluntary agreement.

Leading family charity National Family Mediation (NFM), based in Exeter, pointed to new government data just published which shows some 1.35 million families are currently in the child maintenance system, including 8,240 in Plymouth, 3,890 in Torbay, and 2,610 in Exeter (full breakdown by local authority below, including all of Devon).

NFM says the government is good at producing data, but less good at helping parents find ways to make voluntary agreements.

NFM Chief Executive Jane Robey says at least one in ten of these ‘live’ cases could be settled more sensibly and cheaply if the parents involved were to seek a mediated settlement, which would then enable them to form a voluntary agreement.

“Why would anyone who’s caught in the child maintenance sausage-machine not want to find a mediated settlement that would save them money?” she asks.

“Since the child maintenance service in 2014 introduced fees, running at 20 per cent per maintenance payment, it is not uncommon for some parents to find themselves paying £20 per week in fees alone – the fee for a typical maintenance payment of £100 per week.

That’s over £1,000 per year and, with a lifespan for this type of case of seven years, that’s the cost of the young person’s car, driving lessons AND insurance …. or the lion’s share of university tuition fees for a year.

“Voluntary agreements not only save the taxpayer money, since they cut out the expensive government middleman, but crucially they can save parents thousands of pounds which can go to the young person instead of the government.”

"But NFM says people who are in the child maintenance system are not being properly advised about alternative approaches, so they are usually unaware of their options.

“The government is very efficient at publishing up-to-date statistics about the numbers of families in the child maintenance system, but when it comes to thinking creatively about how to reduce those numbers, the weaknesses shine through.

“It focuses on closing down cases for ‘bureaucratic’ reasons, and transferring families to new schemes, yet makes scant reference to mediation being a viable alternative solution for families.

“We believe if the government spent some time encouraging mediated settlements they’d find their child maintenance workload reduced very swiftly.”