Child Support Agency to be scrapped

Plans to scrap the Child Support Agency and replace it with a "more streamlined and tougher new body" have been announced by Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton.

The announcement follows the recommendations of an independent report on child support in the UK by Sir David Henshaw.

The report recommended that a new system for child support should be introduced, which would be simpler to use and administer, as well as tougher on parents who did not face up to their responsibilities. The report also said that the new system should maximise the reduction in child poverty and deliver value for money for the taxpayer.

Announcing the plans, Mr Hutton said: "We need a fresh start that is not burdened by the failure of the past. So, I propose to replace the CSA with a new organisation that is simpler, but tougher on parents who do not pay up."

Among the key changes announced by Mr Hutton were plans to significantly increase the amount of maintenance that parents with care on benefits can keep and to enforce tougher penalties on parents who do not meet their responsibilities, including seeking powers to suspend passports and impose curfews.

Plans to explore all methods of publicising enforcement action, including the feasibility of naming those who had been successfully prosecuted, were also announced, also with plans to examine a range of options to ensure that more fathers took responsibility for their children, including changing the law on registration of births to encourage or require joint registration.

Mr Hutton said: "It is not acceptable for any child to grow up in poverty in this country in this day and age. Too many children are not receiving the maintenance they are due.

"I want the new system to be more effective, both in tackling child poverty and giving better value for money."

However, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Philip Hammond said that the decision would come as "a huge disappointment to the 1.5 million families who are stuck on the current CSA system and were expecting action to ease their plight."

Mr Hammond said: "They will not be automatically converted onto the proposed new system, and are effectively abandoned.

"Neither has any attempt been made to address the real root of the CSA's problems - the inability of the current system to accurately assess how much maintenance an absent parent should pay.

"Having just poured £0.5 billion of tax payer's money down the drain, the government must be sure it has addressed this key issue before spending any more."

Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson David Laws said that the announcement only offered "rebranding, further delay and more gimmicks". He said: "We are now in our tenth year of CSA incompetence under Labour, and all we have now is further uncertainty, which could make absent parents even less likely to pay up."

(KMcA/SP)