Clause 4
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
3:30 pm
James Plaskitt (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions; Warwick and Leamington, Labour)
As the hon. Gentleman said, the intention behind the amendment is for the commission to promote the importance of child maintenance in an even-handed way, as he would see it, and allow parents themselves to choose whether they prefer a voluntary or a statutory arrangement. However, I would be extremely loth to lose the important words “taking responsibility”, which are clearly enshrined in the Bill as drafted. The amendment appears to be based on a misunderstanding of what clause 4 intends to do.
The clause places a duty on the commission to promote awareness among parents of the importance of taking responsibility for the maintenance of their children and securing maintenance in whatever way is most appropriate. It therefore provides the commission with the power to run campaigns to have a positive influence on both parents, emphasising the importance of agreeing, establishing and maintaining effective maintenance arrangements.
However, the clause does not apply only in relation to voluntary maintenance arrangements. The purpose of the wording that the amendment would remove is simply to recognise that without compulsion the impetus for initiating the maintenance arrangement, whether through an application to the commission or by making a voluntary agreement, will always lie with at least one of the parents rather than with the state. Any promotion or awareness-raising activity needs to reflect that. For that reason, the amendment is superfluous, as the wording of clause 4(b) does not attempt to distinguish between different types of arrangements or indicate a preference between them for the purposes of promotion.
In exercising that function, as with others it is being given, the commission must aim to realise its overall objectives—in other words, to maximise the total number of effective maintenance arrangements in place. To do that, it must encourage and support appropriate voluntary maintenance arrangements and support the making of applications to the statutory maintenance service.
The commission has no desire to push people inappropriately into unstable voluntary maintenance arrangements; indeed, it would be failing if any action led to that. I understand the motivation behind the amendment, but I hope that I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that both this function and others, such as information and guidance, will be exercised on the basis that parents are best placed to decide what sort of arrangements suit their children’s needs. The commission’s role is to encourage them actively to consider the issue, make them aware of the choices they face and support them through the decision-making process. I hope that that reassures him and that he will withdraw the amendment.