Clause 2
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
2:00 pm
Paul Rowen (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; Rochdale, Liberal Democrat)
Once more, there are a number of important points in this string of amendments that both my party and the Conservative Front Benchers wish to pursue. The first picks up on the same point that we were debating just now—the issue of historic debt and what to do about it. I remind the Minister of the evidence on the historic debt position that was given by Janet Allbeson on Tuesday. She said that it would be a tough job to collect it, because a lot of historic debt is pretty flaky. As well as processing new applications, one of the huge exercises that the transition will entail will be bringing historic debt cases up to date before a case is transferred. That will involve a lot of extra work. It gives some indication of the tasks that the commission will face in development.
Although we have already debated historic debt, I want to focus on amendment No. 29. With your permission, Mr. Chope, I should like to press it to a vote. Its purpose is one that was referred to in the evidence on Tuesday. It would ensure that the commission would have regard to the welfare of any children who are likely to be affected by its decisions. Much of our debate has been about the effect of the CSA’s failure to collect maintenance payments on a generation of children. Given that we are making a new start, it is vital that the Bill explicitly includes a commitment to ensuring that non-resident parents pay their whack, so that child poverty is tackled. Things should not continue to be as they were in the past, which rather obscured some of the work of the CSA in reducing public expenditure claims.
I know that the Bill’s provisions will help to reduce child poverty. However, we need to make it clear that that objective is something that we wish to pursue, and that we seek to recognise the clear relationship between child poverty and maintenance. The figures in the Harker report show that 42 per cent. of children in poverty are children who live in lone-parent families. Only 32 per cent. of lone parents receive child maintenance. The Government have so far missed their target of halving child poverty.