GOVERNMENT workers told a Paisley woman to give her address and bank details to the abusive partner she was trying to flee, MPs heard yesterday.
The case of the woman, who has not been named, was raised at Prime Minister’s Questions by the SNP’s Mhairi Black.
Black said her constituent had escaped an abusive relationship and was now being “passed from pillar to post between the old Child Support Agency and the new child maintenance service”.
The MP, a former member of the Commons work and pensions select committee, asked Theresa May to intervene, and to make sure the difficulties facing the Paisley mum were not representative of the system.
Black said: “After four and a half years of that, she has now been told by the CMS that she has to start the whole process all over again. On top of that, it is insisting that she passes on her personal and her bank details directly to her ex-partner to receive payment.
She asked the Prime Minister to “help resolve this problem and to look at the system that has allowed this abuse to continue”.
The Prime Minister said the case was clearly distressing.“Arrangements are in place that ensure, as I understand it, that an individual does not have to pass on their bank details directly. The fact that her constituent has been asked to do so is something that should be looked into. I am sure that if she passes those details to the appropriate Department, it will look into the matter.”
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