Report On The Child Maintenance White Paper

This document sets out the Government's response to the report by the Work and Pensions Select Committee (HCP 219-I, session 2006-07; ISBN 9780215033109) on the Government's White Paper 'A new system of child maintenance' (Cm. 6979, ISBN 9780101697927) which was published in December 2006. An accompanying document (Cm. 7061, ISBN 9780101706124) which considers key issues that have been raised in response to the Government's White Paper, is available separately.

The Committee's report examines continuing concerns about the performance of the Child Support Agency (CSA), particularly in relation to its compliance and enforcement regime. Issues discussed include: the old and new child support schemes; performance targets and information management; the IT problems encountered; child support assessments; compliance targets and debt levels; enforcement measures in the UK and other countries, notably Australia; staffing issues including staff training, job cuts, pay and morale; and options for urgent action and longer term reforms. The CSA is found to be a failing organisation which is currently in crisis, and requires radical reform in order to provide an acceptable service. Senior management has failed to provide effective leadership through significant cultural shift, with deficient training given to frontline staff and inadequate monitoring procedures in place. The Committee strongly recommends that proposed job cuts be suspended until the Agency's business transformation programme, including its IT system, is proved to be fully functioning. If the recommended improvements are not made, the CSA may need to be wound up and alternative policies implemented to provide financial support and maintenance for children.

This document considers key issues that have been raised in response to the Government's White Paper, 'A new system of child maintenance' (Cm. 6979, ISBN 9780101697927) which was published in December 2006. The White Paper was based on the recommendations made by Sir David Henshaw in his report "Recovering child support: routes to responsibility" (Cm. 6984, ISBN 010168942X).

The Committee's report examines the Government's proposals to reform the child support system, as set out in the White Paper "A new system of child maintenance" (Cm. 6979, ISBN 9780101697927) published in December 2006, and following on from the report by Sir David Henshaw (Cm. 6894, ISBN 9780101689427) published in July 2006. The Committee welcomes the Government's reform proposals, including the eventual replacement of the Child Support Agency by a new body (Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (C-MEC)) in 2008 and the fundamental shift proposed towards maintenance agreements privately agreed between parents. However, concerns are raised over the lack of detail for proper scrutiny of how the new system will work, particularly in relation to the provision of advice and guidance services. The report also highlights a number of inherent contradictions between the principles and practicalities of the proposals, for example how the reforms will impact on child poverty targets in relation to parents on welfare benefits, as well as regarding the transition arrangements for the transfer of existing cases onto the new scheme run by C-MEC. Concerns are also raised that whatever the merit of joint birth registration, tagging this highly sensitive matter onto child maintenance legislation will have wider ramifications for the family law system.

Since it was established in 1993, the Child Support Agency has consistently underperformed, plagued by enormous backlogs of unprocessed cases and uncollected maintenance. Where it works well, the Agency has secured regular contributions from non-resident parents and helped lift an estimated 100,000 children out of poverty. It has to administer complex assessment, collection and enforcement processes and deal with complicated emotional, financial and legal issues to bring about a degree of financial stability for children and parents. Following on from a NAO report (HCP 1174, session 2005-06; ISBN 9780102938692) published in June 2006, the Committee's report examines the implementation of child support reforms, focusing on why the problems in implementing the reforms arose, the impact on the quality of service, the remedial action taken by the Child Support Agency and the lessons learnt. The report finds that implementing the reforms has cost the taxpayer £539 million since 2000, with plans for a further £320 million to improve service levels over the next three years; but the money has failed to deliver improvements in efficiency and quality of service. The Agency still performs less effectively than its counterparts in Australia and New Zealand, with higher average costs per case and lower rates of compliance. The Government published its White Paper (Cm. 6979, ISBN 9780101697927) in December 2006, drawing on the recommendations made by Sir David Henshaw in his report "Recovering child support: routes to responsibility" (Cm. 6984, ISBN 9780101689427). Amongst the reforms announced, the Government will replace the Child Support Agency (CSA) with a new organisation, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (C-MEC) by 2008.