Report points to worrying lack of detail on child support reform

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15/03/07 One Parent Families welcomes today's report on child support reform from the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee which rightly highlights key tensions between the principles and the practicalities of child support reform. The charity agrees with the Committee that there is a worrying lack of detail in the Government's plans for change.

Commenting on the report, One Parent Families Chief Executive Chris Pond said:

"We share the Committee's concern that the proposed new emphasis on encouraging private maintenance arrangements has not been properly thought through, with a lack of practical proposals in the White Paper for essential advice and guidance services needed to underpin such a fundamental shift in policy.

"Although private arrangements will work for some, there must be a clear and unambiguous message spelled out to parents raising children on their own, that C-MEC supports their right to adequate maintenance and will intervene on their behalf to calculate and collect child maintenance if necessary."

"The Committee is right to identify a tension between the Government's key priority for child support reform which is reduction of child poverty, and the decision to delay until 2010 any increase in the £10 child maintenance disregard. Increasing the child maintenance disregard could contribute significantly to lifting more children out of poverty by allowing more of any money paid by the non-resident parent to go to the child. This should be done as early as possible, in order to assist the Government to reach its target of halving child poverty by 2010.

"Lone parents need an efficient, effective government-run child support service which will back them if they need it. The Committee is right to sound a warning on the dangers of C-MEC having to run three child support systems side by side, and to voice its lack of confidence at this stage about future plans for C-MEC's IT system. If the reformed child support scheme is to succeed, the Government will need to take careful note of the Select Committee's concerns."

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