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New child maintenance system looks promising
25/10/2007
The latest figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions show early signs that the new system of securing child maintenance payments may be working.
With an increase in population, family law solicitors in Northern Ireland have to deal with an increasing number of divorces; but the new Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill seems to have had some success in ensuring that non-resident parents do not default on payments.
Northern Ireland solicitors not only have had to chase fewer non-paying parents through the courts, but have also had more co-operation from the government, which seems to have produced a more efficient system.
Under a new scheme, the Child Support Agency (CSA) had collected at least one payment from 85 per cent of new non-resident parents under collection schedules set up with the new rules.
In the year to September 2007, the CSA collected or arranged £925 million in child maintenance payments, which went to care for 674,000 children in Britain and Northern Ireland.
In the quarter ending September 2007, where maintenance was collected, 87 per cent of the amount due was handed over on average.
The average rate of monthly increase in the amount of outstanding maintenance payments also slowed by £3 million over the financial year ending 2006.
Government administrators have helped solicitors by clearing 37 per cent more applications by the end of September 2007 than in the 12 months previously.
Contact us for legal advice
With an increase in population, family law solicitors in Northern Ireland have to deal with an increasing number of divorces; but the new Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill seems to have had some success in ensuring that non-resident parents do not default on payments.
Northern Ireland solicitors not only have had to chase fewer non-paying parents through the courts, but have also had more co-operation from the government, which seems to have produced a more efficient system.
Under a new scheme, the Child Support Agency (CSA) had collected at least one payment from 85 per cent of new non-resident parents under collection schedules set up with the new rules.
In the year to September 2007, the CSA collected or arranged £925 million in child maintenance payments, which went to care for 674,000 children in Britain and Northern Ireland.
In the quarter ending September 2007, where maintenance was collected, 87 per cent of the amount due was handed over on average.
The average rate of monthly increase in the amount of outstanding maintenance payments also slowed by £3 million over the financial year ending 2006.
Government administrators have helped solicitors by clearing 37 per cent more applications by the end of September 2007 than in the 12 months previously.
Contact us for legal advice
