Enforcing Child Support Obligations: the attitudes of separated fathers

In the UK the 1991 Child Support Act has introduced major changes to the way in which the state intervenes in the financial support of children when their parents separate. The new approach requires much higher payments from separated parents (in most cases fathers) and enforces these payments much more rigorously than in the past. However, although research shows that most separated fathers did not pay regular child maintenance under the old system, there is little information available on the reasons for this non-payment. The research reported here deals with the attitudes of separated fathers, drawing on in-depth interviews with a small sample of men in order to explore their attitudes towards child maintenance payments. These interviews pre-date the implementation of the Child Support Act but suggest that many of the issues which are now emerging reflect a complex set of attitudes about the nature and extent of the financial responsibility of parents towards their children.