RECIPE FOR YET MORE FAMILY CHAOS
January 10, 2007 11:14 AM
Background:
Last month John Hutton unveiled a white paper calling for the Child Support Agency (CSA) to be scrapped and replaced with a powerful new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Agency (CMEC). Those failing to pay could face having wages withheld, losing their passports, driving licences and facing curfew. According to the White Paper the government intends to write off £800m in maintenance arrears.
News:
Nick Harvey comments: 'The 13 year history of the Child Support Agency has been a catalogue of disasters culminating in the agency being owed £3.5bn. The whole thing has been a shambles from start to finish and in order to save face the CSA has recently been pursuing up to a decade old debts including here in North Devon.
'The news that the government intends to scrap the CSA and replace it with the more menacing sounding Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission seems like a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. The three year transition will undoubtedly cause yet more problems for separated families in North Devon.
Nick Harvey adds: 'Under the draconian Hutton proposals the CMEC will have the power to bypass the courts when taking enforcement action, this can involve considerable punitive measures including the mandatory withholding of wages and naming and shaming. Bullying people is not the answer - creating an efficient and fairer system is.'
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