Child maintenance

Tuesday, 17 February 2009 00:00

We are all familiar with the CSA (Child Support Agency) which has been pilloried by both national press and general public for many years. We have also all heard the woeful tales of mothers forced to name the father of their child or risk losing their benefits - but did you know that this was all about to change?

Children law expert and head of Tozers LLP family law department Tracy Lambert explains:

"A new system is coming into force under the CMOPA 2008 (Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act) some measures of this act have already come into force. Since 14 July 2008 new benefit claimants cannot be forced to apply for child support. At the end of 2008 there was a choice for all parents as to whether they stayed in the current child support system or whether they transferred to the new scheme, and by 2013 it is hoped that everybody will be dealt with on the same new basis of assessment.

The new body dealing with these assessments is the C-MEC (Child Maintenance and Enforcement commission). In due course C-MEC may require the existing CSA customers to choose whether or not to stay in the statutory scheme. Parents will drop out of the statutory scheme only if they both agree. There is no longer going to be a requirement for parents who care for children on benefit to use the child support machinery nor will there be any penalty to them in terms of reduction of their own benefit if they do not apply. This is a major benefit of the new scheme.

Essentially the onus under the new scheme is to get parents to agree their own arrangements for child maintenance.

This emphasis on agreement is based upon the premise that voluntary arrangements tend to have better rates of compliance. The objectives are stated as "to maximise the number of children who live apart from their parents for whom effective maintenance arrangements are in place" and further "the State should only get involved when parents cannot come to agreement themselves, or when one party tries to evade their responsibilities."

There are however concerns that absent parents may think that they will get a better deal and not have to pay as much if it is under a voluntary arrangement.

There are also proposed changes to the way that payments are calculated. Under the CSA payments were based on net income, but under the new system it is proposed that the calculations should be based on gross weekly income with records being obtained from the income data for HM Revenue and Customs. The second change is to the percentages that apply - instead of 15%,20% or 25% of net income depending on the number of children, the calculations will now be on the basis of 12%,16% or 19% to the first £800 of gross weekly income and then lower rates of 9%, 12% and 15% are applied to the balance of gross weekly income. In addition some cases will attract a flat rate of £7 per week when the payer is in receipt of certain benefits."

Will the new system work? Mrs Lambert says: "It is impossible to predict with any degree of certainty whether the new system will achieve its stated intentions of securing voluntary arrangements of maintenance. However, it is hard to imagine that anything could be worse than the present scheme under the CSA."