Department for Work and Pensions
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Hutton: Child maintenance reforms to get more money to more children
Today's publication of the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill marks the next stage of the Government's fundamental reform of the system of child maintenance.
The reforms will:
- Replace the Child Support Agency with the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (C-MEC), a new body at arm's length from government with tougher powers to force non-resident parents to pay for their children.
- Help lift children out of poverty by allowing parents on low incomes to keep more of the maintenance owed to them.
- Empower more parents to make and maintain their own private maintenance arrangements.
Measures in the Bill would reduce the financial burden of the child maintenance system on taxpayers and encourage parents to pay promptly by allowing C-MEC to operate a charging scheme. This scheme could charge the non-resident parents who default on payments to help recover the costs of the often time-consuming and specialist work undertaken to track them down.
The Bill also contains new powers to share with credit reference agencies information on parents who do not pay their maintenance or debt - potentially affecting future loan or mortgage applications.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, John Hutton said:
"We know that putting parents in control of their own arrangements is key to them being responsible and taking responsibility for their childen.
"However there are a small number of parents who seem to think that paying for their kids is something they can simply choose not to do. It isn't. And these new powers would mean that non-payment brings real and lasting penalties.
"The new rules would be simpler and more transparent, making it harder to hide income and giving us the power to deduct money direct from bank accounts as well as from earnings.
"This legislation would provide a strong framework to enable the new child maintenance body to deliver a system that puts the needs of the children who depend on it first, and ensures that families and children do not slide into poverty when parents split up."
The new organisation would also work closely with other government bodies, such as Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to establish parents' income and set maintenance levels for the forthcoming year.
Measures in the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill include:
* Removing the requirement that parents with care on benefit use the CSA (or C-MEC) to establish maintenance payments, giving them more choice over their arrangements;
* Introducing a swifter and more effective administrative process, allowing C-MEC to take faster enforcement action;
* Allowing C-MEC to take money out of people's bank accounts when they will not co-operate with other collection methods and Deduction from Earnings Orders cannot be used;
* Enforcing the surrender of a non-resident parent's passport or imposing a curfew on them if they fail to pay maintenance;
* Simplifying the assessment process by using latest available tax-year information and, where possible, fixing the award for a year, thereby providing parents with more certainty on the amount of maintenance to be paid; and
* Using gross weekly income, rather than net, as a basis for calculating a maintenance liability, meaning that less reliance is placed on the non-resident parent's co-operation, limiting opportunities for non-resident parents to manipulate income to avoid paying, and delivering a faster, more accurate and transparent maintenance calculation process.
Notes to Editors
1. On 13 December 2006 the DWP published the Child Maintenance White Paper: 'A new system of child maintenance'.
2. The DWP's response to the consultation and to the Work and Pensions Select Committee report was published on 15 May 2007.
3. Both reports can be found at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/childmaintenance
4. The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill includes measures to provide faster compensation to all people diagnosed with mesothelioma. The intention to introduce this legislation was announced at the mesothelioma summit in London on 13 March 2007. The press notice can be found at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/2007/mar/hsc023-130307.asp
Website http://www.dwp.gov.uk
