LARGE numbers of parents are not paying child maintenance and could be putting families into poverty.

New figures from the department for work and pensions revealed about 370 parents were due to pay through the Government’s child maintenance service in Southend but 180 did not during the first three months of the year.

The child maintenance service can take money from earnings, benefits and bank accounts if payments are not made.

This is not the only way of making payments.

In Basildon 350 people were due to pay through the service, set up where people cannot come to an arrangement or where payments have not been made, but 160 did not.

In Rochford, 290 parents made Direct Pay arrangements over the first three months of 2018.

Tony Cox, councillor for adults and housing at Southend Council, said: “The reality is these people have been ordered to make the payments and it is about children having a good standard of living.

“Relationships break up for different reasons but I don’t see any reason why the children should be punished.

“Where people do not pay, and it is appropriate, court action should be brought.

“I am pleased to see the Southend figures have gone down but there is still a way to go.”

The figures show that nearly 40 per cent of the parents who have to use the service in Castle Point failed to pay or 50 out of 140.

Figures showed about 40 per cent of the parents in Rochford failed to pay.

A spokesman for Gingerbread, a charity for single parent families, said: “Child maintenance alone lifts a fifth of low-income single parent families out of poverty.

“But sadly, we regularly hear from single parents whose children are not receiving support.”