The Quebec government "picks the pockets" of its poorest families, according to a coalition of community groups representing single mothers, welfare recipients and students.

The coalition wants the government to stop taking away child-support money from low-income households that also receive social assistance.

When Monique Bellefleur divorced her husband, she found herself unemployed, in debt and on social assistance.

She has two children, a 10-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy who is disabled.

But Quebec's rules for social assistance mean that most of the child-support payments she receives from her ex-husband go to the government, Bellefleur said Sunday in Montreal. Because she's receiving social assistance, the province takes $300 of her $400 dollars a month in child-support, she said, and she has to rely on food banks and other social services to get by.

"The Quebec government picks the pocket of the poorest children in our society," coalition member Martin Thériault said at a news conference in Montreal on Sunday.

"On a yearly basis, child-support payments are being embezzled by the government at a level of $46.5 million a year."

Thériault said 13,000 single parents on social assistance are affected.

People who apply for government loans and bursaries, or legal aid and social housing, are also affected, he said.

Welfare recipients are eligible to receive only $100 a month in child support, regardless of how many children they have, Thériault said.

He said his group isn't asking the government for more money.

"Let the poorest children in Quebec keep the money that court judgments have allocated to them," he said.

The coalition plans to present a petition to the government in February, before the next provincial budget, asking for changes to the rules.