Access Rights

Responding to a series of online questions on the Family Lives website; Maria Miller MP addresses planned changes to the child maintenance system. Website users were invited to email their questions, a selection of which appear below:

Question: Why are lone parents going to be forced to pay for the services of the new CSA? Surely it should be the "deadbeats" that pay, not the resident parents? (James French, also asked by Lisa Seaton). Is this just a way of reducing the national deficit? (Justine Mensa-Bons)

Both parents have a responsibility to raise their children whether or not their own parental relationship is intact or not. Children do better when both parents remain involved in their lives. That goes for the financial cost of a child’s upbringing...

As school children count down to their well-earned break from school, it can be a difficult time for parents – particularly when they are bringing up children alone. Complicated childcare arrangements, financial pressures and trying to keep bored children occupied are issues faced by all parents, but for lone parents they are often magnified. Disagreements about where the children will spend time can flair up, underlying the fact that family life has changed and this is a painful process for children and adults.

A quarter of British families are now headed by a single parent with 1.8 million mother and fathers raising their children single-handedly. At Family Lives we hear from thousands of lone parents each year and we have put together the following tips, for parents by...

Being separated from your child when you’ve been a full-time dad isn’t easy. Trying to adapt from being with them all the time, to limited visits maybe once or twice a week – or even less in some cases – is heartbreaking, for you and for them.

It’s at times like this that talking to other dads – or to someone impartial outside your situation – is so important. Jacques Pienaar is the father of a seven-year-old boy. He separated from his son’s mother when the little boy was two. Until recently he had been denied access to contact or see his son, and had to go to court in order to be granted a contact order.

‘Coping with not seeing my son was very difficult. I’d been involved in his life since the day he was born, and the longest that I had previously gone without seeing...

Divorce and separation are major life changing events for the adults involved but they can also be very hurtful and stressful events in the lives of children. Whether unmarried or married, lesbian, gay or heterosexual, many couples with children come to a point in their lives where a decision is to be made to end a relationship.  It is hard to predict the impact of the family breakdown on everyone involved but more often than not there is a degree of hurt felt by the parents and children alike.  It is easy for others to offer advice about the best way to approach this and trying to be amicable is best for all.  However, this is not always easily done because of deep felt emotions that perhaps feel raw at the time.  

Ending the relationship does not...