Urgent improvements to the child maintenance system are needed to ensure both children and parents flourish, new research has found.
A report compiled by the Poverty Alliance says the current system is complicated and difficult to navigate and better advice and information services are required.
Other key findings include problems with compliance, particularly when voluntary arrangements between parents had not been agreed, while the introduction of fees was seen by some as a barrier to accessing the system.
The research was commissioned by lone parent organisation Fife Gingerbread with support from the Family Nurture Partnership.
It was carried out with parents and people providing services in Fife and has been used to launch a campaign called Bairns Come First, which calls for improvements to the system.
Researchers repeatedly found the process of establishing child maintenance between parents who had separated was stressful for all involved.
Problems were heightened when there was experience of domestic abuse.
Tam Baillie, the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People, said the report shone a light on an area which had been overlooked for too long.
“It shows the injustice that many children and families are deprived of child maintenance, contributing to the risk of them living in poverty,” he said.
“This aspect of child poverty would be avoidable if we had systems which have the best interests of children at their heart.”
He added: “At present we have complex systems which make it difficult to ensure all families have access to the child maintenance they are entitled to expect.”
Mr Baillie called for action from the UK Government, the Scottish Government and local authorities.
“The sooner this issue is recognised and addressed, the better for our children affected,” he said.
Researchers have made a number of recommendations for improvements, including asking the UK Government to remove a £20 charge to access support from Child Maintenance Options.
It has been described as a barrier to low income families and prevents some people from pursuing a claim.
Rhona Cunningham, strategic manager of Fife Gingerbread, said: “We know from our day-to-day work with families who are experiencing poverty that child maintenance is not even on their radar.
“The present system does very little to support them and the bottom line is their children go without the basics as a result.
“At long last we have credible and tangible evidence that more needs to be done to support parents and their children through what is a very emotional and difficult process for everyone.”
