Clause 17
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
6:30 pm
Andrew Selous (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; South West Bedfordshire, Conservative)
I shall be brief, as it is getting late in the day.
Amendment No. 118 would change the provision in the Bill whereby a reassessment takes place only if the income of a non-resident parent either increases or decreases by 25 per cent. I can almost hear the Minister’s response about the agency’s difficulties with readjusting assessments on small amounts of income, but the 25 per cent. figure is much too high. It can be as unfair to the parent with care as it can be to the non-resident parent when income both goes up and goes down. If there is an increase in income of 24 per cent. and children do not benefit from it, that is wrong. If someone has a gross weekly income of £100, it goes down to £76 and the percentage is applied on the £100 figure, that is wrong, too.
The figure is too wide in scope. The Minister will say, “We will get it all through, it will be simpler, it will be administratively easier,” but the scope is just too wide. It is another example of too much rough justice in the Bill. The figure of 10 per cent. would be more reasonable, and variations of 9 per cent. either way could be borne more easily than variations of 24 per cent.