15 December 2006
The troubled Child Support Agency will be swept away and replaced with a new body that will deliver simpler and more effective ways of collecting child maintenance, Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton said this week.
The Child Maintenance White Paper, launched on December 13, proposes the creation of a new non-departmental public body – the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (C-MEC) – to be led by a commissioner for child maintenance.
The white paper also puts forward proposals designed to encourage parents to make private maintenance agreements wherever possible, although the new body will be given tougher powers to collect debt from non-complying parents.
Hutton said: 'Our proposals to get visibly tougher on enforcement send out a clear signal that non-payment of maintenance will not be tolerated.
'The proposals set out the way forward for a completely new child maintenance system. They establish and enforce clear rights and responsibilities. They offer better value for money for the taxpayer. And, above all, they will deliver a system that properly meets the needs of the parents with care and children that depend on it, helping to ensure that families and children do not slide into poverty when parents split up.'
The white paper takes forward many of the recommendations put forward by former Liverpool City Council chief executive Sir David Henshaw in his review of the CSA published in July.
Speaking to Public Finance shortly after the white paper's publication, Henshaw said he was very pleased to see ministers picking up the majority of his recommendations.'It's good to see the government going towards the establishment of a new agency,' he said.
Henshaw added that the transition to the new body would be challenging but was achievable. 'There's no doubt there's lots of commitment from staff,' he said. 'There's a lot to do but I'm sure it can be taken forward.'
The white paper also promises to increase the so-called benefit disregard – the amount of maintenance parents with care can keep before it affects their benefits. Initially, the disregard will stand at £10, but from 2010-11, it will be 'significantly' increased.
But this move came too late for child poverty campaigners. Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: 'Urgent action is needed now to speed up enforcement.
'Increasing the maintenance disregard will get more help to families sooner and introduce an incentive to non-resident parents to pay up, as they know it will go to their children and not be recovered by the government. Parents should not have to wait until 2010 for this change – it should be introduced for the current system soon as possible and maintenance should be disregarded in full.'
PFdec2006
