CHILDREN are being put at risk, charities said yesterday, as coalition ministers prepared to launch their latest cash-cow yesterday — creaming off the top of child support payments.

As the Star reported yesterday, separated parents now face a £20 application fee to seek help from the coalition’s new Child Maintenance Service in negotiating payments from an absent parent.

But the up-front fee is not all. Next month the agency will begin charging resident parents a 4 per cent commission on their children’s maintenance payments while the non-resident parent will themselves face an extra 20 per cent levy on top of their payments.

Work and Pensions Minister Steve Webb insisted the user-pays model would end up “helping couples to work together to ensure the best outcomes for their children.”

But child welfare groups were appalled.

Child Poverty Action Group condemned the minister’s move as putting children at risk, while single parents’ charity Gingerbread warned levies would simply put pressure on many parents to accept unsuitable arrangements instead of seeking help.

Chief executive Fiona Weir said it was “simply wrong” for the government to take a cut of money intended for children.

“While it’s great if parents can make their own arrangements for child maintenance, we know that this can prove difficult for many,’ she said.

“We fear that the new charges and the government’s blinkered focus on private arrangements could deter many single parents from getting the help they need to sort out child maintenance and that children will lose out.”