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Relationship Separation and Child Support Study

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Relationship Separation and Child Support Study Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 503 Relationship separation and child support study Nick Wikeley, Eleanor Ireland, Caroline Bryson and Ruth Smith A report of research carried out by National Centre for Social Research on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions © Crown Copyright 2008. Published for the Department for Work and Pensions under licence from the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Application for reproduction should be made in writing to The Copyright Unit, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, St Clements House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BQ. First Published 2008. ISBN 978 1 84712 386 2 Views expressed in this report are not necessarily those of the Department for Work and Pensions or any other Government Department. Contents iii Contents Acknowledgements .........................................................................................xxi The Authors ....................................................................................................xxii Abbreviations .................................................................................................xxiii Glossary ..........................................................................................................xxv Summary ...........................................................................................................1 1 Introduction .................................................................................................7 1.1 Background .......................................................................................7 1.2 Aims of the study ............................................................................11 1.3 Research design and rationale ..........................................................12 1.3.1 Sampling ...........................................................................12 1.3.2 Conducting the survey ......................................................14 1.3.3 Response rates ..................................................................14 1.3.4 Notes about the data ........................................................15 1.3.5 Interpreting results in the report ........................................16 1.4 Structure of the report ....................................................................16 2 The demographic profile of separated parents ............................................19 2.1 Introduction .....................................................................................19 2.1.1 Plan of chapter ..................................................................20 2.2 Children: numbers and ages ............................................................20 2.2.1 Number of children ...........................................................21 2.2.2 Ages of the children ..........................................................21 iv Contents 2.3 Relationship prior to break-up ..........................................................22 2.3.1 Length of relationship .......................................................22 2.3.2 Marital status ....................................................................23 2.3.3 Reasons for break-up ........................................................24 2.3.4 Friendliness of relationship ................................................27 2.4 Re-partnering ..................................................................................27 2.5 Employment and socio-economic status ...........................................29 2.6 Income ............................................................................................33 2.6.1 Sources of income .............................................................33 2.6.2 Level of income .................................................................34 2.6.3 Poverty scales ....................................................................35 2.6.4 Housing tenure .................................................................37 2.7 Friendliness of current relationship ...................................................38 2.7.1 Friendliness of current relationship by re-partnering ...........39 2.7.2 Friendliness of current relationship by aspects of prior relationship .......................................................................40 2.7.3 Reasons for break-up ........................................................42 2.8 Ethnicity ..........................................................................................45 2.9 Long-standing disability and illness ..................................................45 2.10 Non-Child Support Agency non-resident parents ..............................46 2.11 Summary .........................................................................................48 3 Contact arrangements ...............................................................................51 3.1 Introduction .....................................................................................51 3.1.1 Plan of chapter ..................................................................51 3.2 Current contact with ex-partner .......................................................52 3.2.1 Whether ex-partners have had any contact since break-up ...........................................................................52 3.2.2 Involvement in decision-making about children’s lives ........54 3.3 Non-resident parents’ contact arrangements with children ...............56 3.3.1 NRP contact with children and the impact of distance between parents ...............................................................56 Contents v 3.3.2 Patterns of contact ............................................................57 3.3.3 Parties’ views about contact arrangements ........................59 3.3.4 Contact and child maintenance .........................................63 3.3.5 NRP contact with children: an overview .............................64 3.4 Non-Child Support Agency non-resident parents ..............................65 3.5 Summary .........................................................................................65 4 Financial arrangements ..............................................................................67 4.1 Introduction .....................................................................................67 4.1.1 Plan of chapter ..................................................................67 4.2 Type of financial arrangement ..........................................................67 4.2.1 Non-CSA PWCs .................................................................68 4.2.2 CSA clients ........................................................................71 4.3 Reasons for having no arrangement .................................................71 4.4 Maintenance levels and methods of payment ..................................75 4.4.1 Maintenance levels ............................................................75 4.4.2 Maintenance: methods of payment ...................................81 4.4.3 Maintenance: changes to private agreements ....................82 4.5 Views on payment level ...................................................................83 4.5.1 Fairness of child maintenance level ....................................83 4.5.2 Affordability of child maintenance level .............................83 4.6 Discussions about finance ................................................................84 4.6.1 Do parents discuss financial issues? ...................................84 4.6.2 Frequency and ease of financial discussions .......................85 4.6.3 Financial discussions with children .....................................87 4.7 Informal support payments and purchases .......................................87 4.7.1 Do NRPs provide informal support? ...................................87 4.7.2 Amounts and frequency of informal support .....................89 4.7.3 Types of informal support and purchases ...........................90 4.8 Compliance .....................................................................................91 vi Contents 4.8.1 Compliance levels ..............................................................91 4.8.2 Reasons for non-payment and late payment ......................93 4.8.3 Acceptability of receiving less than full amount .................95 4.9 Non-Child Support Agency non-resident parents ..............................96 4.10 Summary .........................................................................................97 5 Attitudes towards child maintenance and the role of non-resident parents ....................................................................................................101 5.1 Introduction ...................................................................................101 5.1.1 Plan of chapter ................................................................101 5.2 Typology of separated families .......................................................102 5.2.1 Constructing the typology ...............................................102 5.2.2 The typology ...................................................................103 5.2.3 The maintenance arrangements of the five ‘types’ of separated family ..............................................................106 5.3 Attitudes of separated parents towards child support .....................108 5.3.1 Attitudes towards the principle of child maintenance obligation .......................................................................109 5.3.2 Attitudes towards
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