Memorandum submitted by the National Association
of Citizens Advice Bureaux (CS 27)
The CAB Service appreciates the opportunity
to contribute to the Committee's inquiry into the child support
White Paper.
In the year 1998/99 bureaux throughout the country
dealt with over 72,000 enquiries relating to child support. During
the year we also received nearly 800 reports from bureaux highlighting
concerns on behalf of clients. The following response is based
on this experience.
SUMMARY
The Citizens Advice Bureaux Service:
— Welcomes the proposal for a simple
system of child support rates
— Welcomes the lower rates for non-resident
parents on very low incomes
— Welcomes the move to a more customer
focused child support service
— Supports the proposal for a £10
maintenance premium but recommends that it should be increased
to £15 per week
— Accepts the need for a tougher sanctions
regime but urges that great care is taken to ensure that the sanctions
are based on correct information and applied sensitively
— Recommends the abolition of the benefit
penalty which results in many children living below the poverty
line
INTRODUCTION
1. The CAB Service appreciates the opportunity
to respond to the Committee's inquiry into the White Paper. The
Government's proposals are the latest in a series of reform programmes
designed to address problems with the child support scheme. Success
for the scheme is crucial. It is vital for the Government to address
the problem of three million children growing up in poverty, and
child support represents a substantial element of this problem.
2. Last year (1998/99) bureaux throughout
the country dealt with over 72,000 enquiries about child support,
most of them arising from the very complex and difficult nature
of the present system.
A SIMPLE SYSTEM
OF RATES
3. The proposal to move from the current
very complex system to the radically simplified scheme, based
on a simple percentage of the non-resident parent's net earnings
will be welcomed by CAB advisers throughout the country. They
have struggled to explain the present scheme, and to check the
accuracy of assessments. The new formula will be easier to understand,
explain and calculate. This is an important and very welcome proposal
in the White Paper.
4. Citizens Advice Bureaux regularly report
problems experienced by non-resident parents on low incomes who
cannot afford their child support payments. We support the proposal
to apply a minimum rate of £5 a week for non-resident parents
earning £100 a week or less and lower rates for those earning
between £100 and £200 a week.
THE CHILD
MAINTENANCE PREMIUM
5. The introduction of Working Families'
Tax Credit with 100 per cent disregard of all maintenance paid
to claimants will benefit many children and is greatly welcomed
by the CAB Service. However, there are children growing up in
homes where employment is impossible. These families will gain
only £10 of any maintenance paid.
6. In 1994 the CAB Service published a report
`Child support: one year on'. We included as a key recommendation
that there should be:
"a maintenance disregard of £15
for parents with care who are in receipt of income support, in
order that they receive a direct financial benefit from any child
support paid by the absent parent."
7. Since that report we have continued to
call for a disregard. Governments have previously stuck to the
view that child support payments to people receiving state income
maintenance benefits should lose some benefit as child support
is paid. We welcomed the view expressed in the Green Paper that
this represented meant `hassle, but no cash'. The CAB Service
has taken the view that it is of prime importance that children
in the poorest families should receive the benefit of additional
child support income. We take this view because we believe it
necessary to ensure support for the scheme and because of the
contribution the money could make in alleviating poverty.
8. The Government claims it is putting children
first, yet those in the poorest families will continue to face
a restriction on the amount that they receive from the child support
scheme. We believe this is as important as ensuring that maintenance
is paid, in order to show that child support is based on the principle
that parents and society as a whole should invest in the future
of children. We therefore welcome the introduction of a child
maintenance premium but repeat our belief that this should be
up to £15 per week.
A TOUGHER SANCTIONS
REGIME
9. The CAB Service fully supports measures
taken to ensure that non-resident parents do not avoid their responsibilities
to pay child support. Effective enforcement action is central
to the success of the child support scheme. Monthly reports from
bureaux continue to highlight the very real difficulties faced
by families when maintenance goes unpaid:
A CAB in Eastern England reported a client and
her daughter who had only £17.10 a week to live on when maintenance
payments did not arrive, as happened regularly. She could not
claim income support because the maintenance would take her above
income support level.
A CAB in the Midlands reported a client who was
assessed to receive £80 a week child support. She was lucky
if she received £20 a month. However, her family credit,
housing benefit and council tax benefit were all calculated on
the assumption that she received the full maintenance. She was
therefore doubly deprived as these benefits were reduced.
10. Enforcement powers must be operated
in a fair way and care must be taken to ensure that they are based
on correctly assessed liabilities. Bureaux all over the country
have been involved in cases where Deduction of Earnings Orders
(DEOs) have been administered incorrectly, often causing hardship
and much distress.
A CAB in the North West reported a client earning
£179 per week who was having over £100 deducted each
week from his wages in error. The child support assessment had
used figures that unusually included overtime payments although
he had supplied the correct payslips.
A CAB in the West of England reported a client
who received a phone call in January telling him that he owed
£5000 and an attachment of earnings order would be enforced
if he could not pay. His income is £174 per week, he pays
rent of £75 a week and £60 a week is deducted from his
wages to cover child support. He had received no letter warning
him of the DEO.
11. The CAB Service wishes to urge extreme
caution in introducing criminal sanctions and to seek assurances
that the process would be applied sensitively.
12. The White Paper describes new methods
of applying for maintenance for those making claims for income
support. In future claiming income support will be enough to start
the child support process. A parent with care can specifically
ask the CSA not to pursue maintenance because of `good cause'.
However those who refuse to help trace non-resident parents may
have a benefit penalty imposed after a cooling off period of four
weeks. The CAB Service recommends the abolition of this benefit
penalty which results in many children living below the poverty
line. CABx frequently report clients who have provided all the
information they have yet they suffer a benefit penalty.
A CAB in Southern England reported a client in
some distress who sought advice about how to find out her ex-partner's
address. She had suffered a reduction in benefit but had no idea
where he might be.
A CAB in Eastern England reported a client who
sent full details of her baby's father to the CSA on an A4 sheet.
She suffered a £20 a week reduction in benefit because the
information was not given on the correct form. Another client
who did complete the correct form suffered the same penalty because
the Benefits Agency had mislaid the form.
A NEW CHILD
SUPPORT SERVICE
13. The CAB Service welcomes the emphasis
on moving away from impersonal written contact to more contact
by phone and in person. Some of these changes are already in place
and are very welcome. The number of reports received from bureaux
complaining about the CSA is dropping and we have been pleased
with the introduction of CAB hotlines which enable CABx throughout
the country to communicate with the CSA to resolve clients' problems.
14. We are also pleased to note the emphasis
the CSA places on working with other agencies and family support
services.
September 1999
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