information for practice

1. The Child Support Agency was established in 1993 to assess, collect and enforce child maintenance payments from non-resident parents. From day one, however, the Child Support Agency has not delivered anywhere near what was expected of it.
2. The system has never recovered from this poor start and the Child Support Agency continues to be weighed down by the legacy of the past. For the sake of the children concerned, there is a clear need for fundamental reform of both child maintenance policy and its delivery. This has to be achieved by a clean break with the past. This means new arrangements should be put in place that work with parents to deliver the best outcomes for their children. Alongside this there must be a more effective process for assessing, collecting and enforcing maintenance that provides the people working to deliver child maintenance with the tools to do the job. In addition, there needs to be a new organisation that facilitates modern and innovative approaches to delivery.
3. This White Paper sets out the Government’s radical and far-reaching proposals for the wholesale reform of the child maintenance system so that much more money reaches the children who need it.