Child maintenance makes an important contribution to tackling child poverty and when child maintenance is paid, it can make a significant difference to the lives of families. But the complexity and constraints of the current child maintenance system have made it difficult to achieve these aims effectively.
In February 2006, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced a dual approach to the reform of child maintenance – £120 million of investment in a three year Operational Improvement Plan to stabilise and improve the performance of the Child Support Agency, and a fundamental review of the child maintenance system, led by Sir David Henshaw.
The Operational Improvement Plan is in its third year and has already delivered substantial improvements in the service provided to clients, with the Agency’s performance now better than ever – more children are benefitting, more maintenance is being collected or arranged, the number of un-cleared applications are at an all time low, and new cases are being dealt with more quickly.
The Government responded to Sir David Henshaw’s recommendations in July 2006, published a White Paper in December 2006, and introduced the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill into Parliament in June 2007.
The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill, which received Royal Assent in June 2008, introduced wide-ranging changes to the system, including the establishment of the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission as the statutory body, responsible for the introduction to the new system of child maintenance. The Commission's objective is to maximise the number of effective child maintenance agreements in place - whether private or statutory. The Commission will ensure parents take responsibility for providing financial support for their children, providing support for setting up arrangements, and delivering a new statutory scheme with improved assessment, collection and enforcement processes.
Over time, the changes, will deliver a simpler, more professional, transparent and cost-effective service, and include:
- establishing the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, responsible for all aspects of the new child maintenance system
- enabling parents with care claiming benefits to choose the arrangments which best suit them and their children, by removing the compulsion to use the state maintenance service (currently operated by the CSA)
- providing an information and support service, to enable parents to make an informed choice about the private or statutory maintenance arrangements most suited to their circumstances
- simplifying and streamlining assessments and improving the collection process
- tackling compliance and the collection of debt, through improvements in debt management and an enhanced enforcement regime - enabling the Commission to take effective action at the earliest opportunity against those parents who do not fulfill their responsibility to pay. New measures include:
- deductions from bank accounts
- enforcing the surrender of passports and imposing curfews
- replacing the requirement to apply to the courts for a Liability Order with a swifter, more effective administrative process
- ensuring the payment of arrears owed through new powers to negotiate debt, offset liabilities and recover arrears from the estates of deceased parents.
In addition the Government has announced its intention to extend and increase the disregard - the amount of child maintenance that parents with care can keep without it affecting their benefits. Currently, parents with care on benefits on the current scheme can keep the first £10 of any maintenance paid. This is being doubled to £20 and extended to parents with care on benefit on the old scheme. At the same time, all child maintenance will be disregarded when Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are calculated.
In April 2010 a full disregard will be introduced meaning any money parents receive in child maintenance payments will not be taken into account when calculating out-of-work benefits or Housing and Council Tax benefits.
When will this happen and what will this mean for my case?
More information about what will happen in the future is available in the FAQ section.
