Written evidence to be reported to the House
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
12:00 pm
Nadine Dorries (Mid Bedfordshire, Conservative)
You said that parents tend to take what they are offered. We had a conversation this morning about parents being allocated a key worker or case worker who would see their case through. The case worker would probably deliver a better service, because they know that they will deal with that parent on an ongoing basis, and the parents would be offered some additional comfort. However, we were told that that is not possible. I would imagine that one reason why parents take what they are offered is that they feel vulnerable and think, “Let’s take this now while it is on the table, because it may go off the table and there may be nothing else.” Would you support the case for parents having one person within the department who deals with their case? It would give them the additional confidence that they might need if they knew, that if they did not take what they were offered, someone would be there, continuously dealing with the case and helping them to get a better deal.