Child Support Awards in Britain: An analysis of data from the Families and Children Study

Stephen Morris

Published April 2007

This paper examines the extent to which mothers that care for children where the father is non-resident have an award or agreement for child support in place. Data from the Families and Children Study are used to explore not only whether mothers have an award or order but the type of award they have. Results show that mothers without awards are significantly disadvantaged. Moreover, awards were less commonplace where there were fewer children, where mothers claimed Income Support, were from an Asian background and where contact between the non-resident father and his children was infrequent. Private agreements, in contrast to a CSA award or no award, were more likely where mothers had recently separated, when there was frequent contact between the non-resident father and his children, and where children were younger; they were less common among those living in social housing.