Child Maintenance in the United Kingdom
| Author | Christine Skinner |
| Date | 01 December 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271201400402 |
| Published date | 01 December 2012 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
THE UNITED KINGDOM
Christine Skinner*
Abstract
Setting out the child maintenance obligations for separated families has been both
a contentious and highly dynamic policy area in the UK. Since 1991 policy has been
continual y amended by three successive governments who have all searched for a
solution to the problem of ensuring that non-resident parents make regular cash
payments of child maintenance to support their children (where they can afford to
do so). The UK serves as a very interesting case study in its own right as it provides
a considerable amount of evidence as well as important policy lessons for other
countries which might want to embark on radical change (such as the Netherlands –
see Curry-Sumner this volume). Simultaneously, it is a unique policy within the UK
as it is, arguably, situated awkwardly on the fringes of both the family law system
and the social security system. Therein lies the tension: the boundary between public
and private responsibility. Successive governments have attempted to rebalance these
private and public responsibilities for supporting children in separated/lone parent
families. Currently, in the latest policy formulation, the UK appears to have decoupled
the private obligations of child maintenance from the public social security system
(which provides means-tested social assistance benefits). This paper discusses these
developments and provides new research evidence on the amounts of maintenance
expected under the latest policy proposals via the use of vignette techniques.
Keywords: child maintenance; child support agency; family-based agreements; non-
compliance; non-resident parents; parents with responsibility for care
*
Dr Christine Skinner is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Chair of the Board of Studies in Social
Policy at the University of York. Address: Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University
of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK; tel: +44 1904–321251; e-mail: Christine.skinner@york.
ac.uk. She wishes to thank the Child Maintenance Group at the Department for Work and Pensions
for help with the vignettes and the Child Maintenance Options staff for information on advice and
support services.
European Journal of Social Security, Volume 14 (2012), No. 4
231
Christine Skinner
1. INTRODUCTION
In the UK, the administrative framework for child maintenance policy was
introduced in 1991. At that time, the main responsibility for arranging child
maintenance obligations was moved away from the private family law system
into the control of a new public agency, the Child Support Agency (CSA) which
operated under the auspices of the government department responsible for social
security, currently the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). Hitherto,
child maintenance had been arranged in the ‘shadow of the law’, as parents made
agreements on their own in private or with the aid of solicitors, usually around
the time of separation and divorce. There was always a public system that ran
alongside the private one, but this was reserved for lone parent families in receipt
of social assistance benefits and had a much lower profile and fulfilled a residual
role compared to that of the CSA. Its main function was to pursue non-resident
fathers directly for child maintenance payments in order to recoup the costs of
social assistance benefits provided to lone parent families by the state. After 1991,
the relative positions of public and private systems for child maintenance reversed
and since then it has been the public system that has been dominant. The CSA took
on a more expansive and high profile role as the primary system for arranging and
collecting child maintenance payments for all families, and it thus stepped into the
new position of acting as a ‘go between’ for the parents, setting the amount to be
paid and transferring the monies from one parent to the other. But it retained all
of the maintenance paid where a lone parent was dependent on social assistance
benefits in order to recoup some of the fiscal costs.
Child maintenance policy therefore originally arose out of a legal system that
was designed to protect private interests and was not related to family policy as such.
Nor was the public system under the CSA originally interested in improving family
welfare. Rather, in the new policy framework established in 1991, the CSA stepped into
the private sphere of the family and, most controversially, began to dictate the nature
of private financial transfers between separated parents for their children. Often it
was only when families separated that the implicit nature of the contract with the
state which determines parental responsibility became apparent, especially for poor
families who became dependent on social assistance benefits. Since the CSA was set
up, child maintenance has continued to be a highly contentious policy, with different
governments attempting their own solutions to its perceived problems resulting in
quite radical policy shifts.
This paper provides new research evidence on the amounts of child maintenance
expected under the latest policy proposals using the vignette technique following the
work of Skinner et al. 2007 and it exposes how the child maintenance system interacts
with the social security system. It begins with the development of the UK’s child
maintenance scheme, looking at the key operational features, the shifting policy aims,
the relationship with child poverty, the provisions for dealing with non-compliance
232
Intersentia
Child Maintenance in the United Kingdom
and the types of advice and support services available. It ends with a discussion of the
key issues currently facing the UK.
2. KEY OPERATIONAL FEATURES
There are three main ways in which parents can make arrangements for child
maintenance in the UK: by private agreement between themselves without involving
anyone else, by using the statutory maintenance scheme, the Child Support Agency
(CSA) or by arranging an agreement through the family court system.
2.1. THE COURT
Court-based child maintenance agreements tend to be made only when parents go
to court for some other reason, such as a divorce, or a property settlement. Parents
have to reach an agreement about maintenance and apply to the court in England
and Wales for a ‘Consent Order’. During the first 12 months of the consent order, the
courts will enforce payment in the event of default, but parents will not be granted
access to the statutory CSA scheme. (In Scotland a similar approach is taken, parents
can seek a ‘Minute of Agreement’). Using the courts is prohibitively expensive for most
people, as parents have to employ solicitors and pay court fees and there is no financial
support from the state (through the Legal Aid scheme) to have child maintenance
dealt with in this way (Child Maintenance Options 2012a).
2.2. THE CSA
As far as child maintenance is concerned, the key agency is the CSA which came
into existence under the 1991 Child Support Act. The Act introduced an entirely
new system for dealing with child maintenance obligations in separated families
with dependent children. The CSA was set up to calculate, collect and enforce child
maintenance payments. Under the legislation, children were regarded as residing for
most of the time with one parent, who was named the ‘parent with care’ (usually
the mother). The other parent was referred to as the non-resident parent (usually the
father) and the obligation to pay maintenance fell on that parent. The CSA came under
the auspices of the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) which is, inter alia,
the government department responsible for social assistance. It was compulsory for
parents with care who were claiming social assistance to apply for child maintenance
through the CSA (except in cases where there were concerns regarding domestic
violence or child abuse). The CSA would apply a standardised formula to calculate
the amount of maintenance and it would generally take responsibility for collecting it.
There have been many legislative changes since 1991, with successive governments
attempting to redress the now legendary problems of maladministration in, and
European Journal of Social Security, Volume 14 (2012), No. 4
233
Christine Skinner
the ineffectiveness of, CSA operations. Numerous critiques of the administrative
failings of the CSA were made by parliamentary select committees, the National
Audit Office and the Committee of Public Accounts (see Skinner and Curry-Sumner
2009; Wikeley 2006). As Bradshaw noted (2006: 206), it was not clear whether
the failure of the CSA was ‘… a failure of policy, or a failure of management, or
a failure of the computer system or a failure to understand the capacity of public
policy to succeed in this private area’. The current policy was introduced by the
previous Labour Government in the Child Maintenance and Other Payments, 2008
Act. However, the current Coalition Government is on the point of implementing
further legislative changes set out in the Welfare Reform Act 2012. These two pieces
of legislation prescribe the current operational framework and each is discussed in
turn.
2.3. REMOVAL OF COMPULSION
The 2008 Act was the most radical piece of legislation since the 1991 Act. It removed
the compulsion on parents who were in receipt of social assistance benefits to use
the CSA....
To continue reading
Request your trial