Clause 29
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
3:15 pm
Andrew Selous (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; South West Bedfordshire, Conservative)
We have reached the part of the Bill that deals with debt-management powers. We had full and strenuous debates earlier in the Committee on the subject of debt. Strong views were expressed, certainly by everyone on the Opposition Benches, with some acknowledgement by the Minister that the issue of debt cuts to the heart of the credibility of the system and that it is important for it to be dealt with fairly and not to be brushed under the carpet. Amendments Nos. 21, 22 and 23, which I will discuss, deal with that subject in particular.
Amendment No. 21 relates to cases where a non-resident parent has made payments on behalf of their children, which is not the child maintenance payments transferred to the parent with care that they are required to pay, and deals with how CMEC will treat those payments, if there is an application to count them against the child maintenance payments that the non-resident parent should have paid. The amendment states that the commission must first obtain the permission of the parent with care in writing before agreeing to exercise its powers under clause 29(1). That may sound a little dry, but let me illustrate the point with a constituency case. It is a case that got so serious that I brought the mother concerned, the parent with care, to see the Minister. I do not know whether he remembers that case.
Mr. Plaskitt indicated assent.