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Lone Parents and the Law
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Mavis Maclean CBE
Director, Oxford Centre for Family Law and Policy (OXFLAP)
I. Maintenance from the Non-Resident Parent
A woman used to have to make a legal claim for support to the court through the divorce procedure. It has now become an administrative procedure. All children in single parent families have an entitlement to support. Child support has transformed from private claim to publicly supported right.
II. The Thatcher Years
During the Thatcher years, the family was established against the state as the main form of defence for the individual. The aim was to reduce state involvement in family life and encourage individual responsibility.
Yet to achieve this they had to become, paradoxically, more interventionist than previous governments.
The legal primacy of first children was re-established, in direct contrast sometimes to the practical needs of younger and more dependent children in a second family. Children's rights were separated from the legal status of the parents, in terms of co-habitation, marriage and so on.
A philosophical change occurred placing children's best interests at the heart of family law.
III. The Child Support Package
One Parent Families was involved in discussions at the close of the 1980s, with the aim of assessing the correct package of financial support required for a child, including factors such as subsistence costs, actual expenditure and childcare.
IV. The Difficulties Faced by the Child Support Agency (CSA)
Courts are designed to assess party/party disputes. The CSA is an administrative and not interrogative body. Each statement provided has to be investigated by the agency. Hence all assessments are lengthy.
It was thought that there were rich absentee fathers, yet this rarely proved to be the case.
V. The Achievements of the CSA
The money transferred has improved upon that under the court system. Support paid to single parents by absentee parents is portable income, and remains regardless of their employment and benefit situation.
Child Support is now an entitlement; legal arguments concerning assessment and procedure have been eliminated.
VI. Issues for the Future
Securing housing for children is the next issue to tackle. Primary legislation is a difficult route to obtain property for children; the Children Act contains clauses that can be utilised.
The other issue is that of the non-resident parent's right to contact. Civil status does not alter parental status; this makes no provision for instances of domestic violence. Often families suffering domestic violence are involved in legal disputes, and issues can be resolved through that route. To alter the Children Act might make it favour one or other gender.
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