The Austin Lafferty Solicitors & Estate Agents Blog

Think-tank the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has accused the Government of missing a chance in its latest budget to tackle the problem of family breakdown.

The CSJ says that while it welcomes the removal of the ‘cliff edge’ from the proposed child benefit reforms, the introduction of a gradual withdrawal of child benefit from households with one individual or more earning above £50,000 still provides a financial disincentive against couple formation and commitment.

The new model could also lead to a greater risk of benefit fraud, as couples who are cohabiting but not married will have to decide whether to voluntarily to inform the tax authorities of their personal arrangements, or deny the status of their relationship and continuing to claim the benefit.

The CSJ believes that eliminating this couple penalty is possible and affordable by integrating child benefit into the tax credit system. This measure would support the principle of wealthier families no longer receiving child benefit, but do so in a way that does not undermine two parent families and the aspiration of many lone parents to form couple relationships. According to the CSJ, failure to deal with these primary weaknesses reveals the Government’s disregard, in this instance, of family stability and marriage.

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Agency has revealed the scale of the cost of administering some Child Support Agency (CSA) cases. A typical case requiring a variety of actions to ensure the payment of maintenance can cost up to around £25,000 over 18 years.

Internal management estimates show that when the case involves legal action, the cost to the public purse can jump significantly - by as much as 50%. A ‘difficult’ case in the North West involving years of enforcement against a determinedly resistant parent cost the taxpayer around £40,000.

The wealthy businessman had avoided paying regular child maintenance for his two sons for more than 16 years. During a marathon legal battle the Agency was forced to deploy nearly all of the legal enforcement tools available to it including liability orders, third party debt orders and a charging order imposed on his home. In the end an order for the sale of the property finally compelled him to make a payment of £70,000.

None of the estimated costs in these examples include the added burden of the CSA’s inefficient computer systems, which are due to be replaced over the next few years.

A senior Conservative Peer has announced his intention to challenge the Government's plans to charge single parents to use the future Child Support Agency.

Lord Mackay of Clashfern, who as Margaret Thatcher’s Lord Chancellor introduced the Child Support Act 1991, has tabled an amendment that would exempt from the charges those parents who have no alternative but to use the statutory maintenance service, because private arrangements are not possible or appropriate. The amendment is due to go to a vote on Wednesday 25th January.

The amendment would prevent the Government imposing the following charges on parents who turn to the statutory maintenance service because, without its help, their children would not receive fair and regular child maintenance:

• An up-front application charge levied on the applicant (overwhelmingly ‘parents with care’, around 97% of whom are mothers) in order to use the future new Agency. The Government is discussing a charge of 100 or £50 for an applicant on benefits.

• A ‘collection charge’ taken by the Agency from each maintenance payment it collects, in the range of 7-12% of the payment, before the money is passed on for the child/children.

There is a further ‘collection surcharge’ which the Government proposes to levy on the ‘non-resident parent’, additional to actual maintenance due, in the range 15-20% of the maintenance liability, where the Agency has to step in to collect the maintenance to ensure it gets paid. This would not be affected by the amendment.

Gingerbread Chief Executive Fiona Weir said:

“We are very grateful to Lord Mackay for taking up this vital issue in the Lords, and the indications of support he has received so far show the high level of cross-party concern at the government’s proposals.

“We fully support efforts to help separated parents work together to deal with the financial, emotional and practical consequences of separation. But the government needs to realise that in very many cases that isn’t possible, and if charges are introduced then it will be children who lose out.”

Research from the Centre for the Modern Family, a new think tank launched by Scottish Widows to improve the understanding of the challenges facing modern British families, has revealed that just 16% of people define themselves as part of a ‘traditional’ family of two married parents living together with two or more children. Instead, the findings indicate family structures are becoming increasingly diverse. A quarter of all couples are childless, and one in five lives alone.

Some of the most striking research findings centre on people’s attitudes to what constitutes a “proper family”. Fifty seven per cent of people no longer believe that a couple with children have to be married to be a family. Beyond the subject of marriage, 77% of people believe that single parents can be a proper family; and 59% believe that same sex couples can be a family.

However, a significant minority of people disagree with these views indicating a strong polarisation of opinion. A third, 34%, thinks that a couple should be married to be a family. Just under a third, 29%, believe that same sex couples are not a proper family, and almost one in five, 17%, feel that single parents are not a proper family.

Half of respondents feel that society is out of date with its view of the family. Almost a quarter, 22%, do not believe their family is valued by society and almost a fifth, 18%, feel judged because of their family set-up.

More than half don’t think that the Government takes their family into account and 55% do not think their family set-up is portrayed by the media, on television or in advertising. A quarter of people believe that businesses do not cater for their type of family.

EU Member States should help single mothers by setting up "family centres" to provide them with temporary accommodation, advice and education, the European Parliament has said in a non-legislative resolution.

The resolution calls for a number of initiatives to support single parents, including:

• - Single mothers should get housing support and priority on waiting lists for houses to rent.
• - Tax deductions for single-parent households and other incentives for companies to employ single parents or provide on-site childcare facilities.
• - Parental training courses to prepare and teach young single parents without income how to raise children more effectively.
• - Access to training, vocational training and specific scholarships for single mothers whether they are unmarried, widowed or separated, should be facilitated through funding by the European Social Fund and Member States.
• - Member States should ensure that child support from non-custodial parents is paid regularly, and single fathers should also benefit from all initiatives and actions in favour of single mothers.