MPs hold inquiry into child agency: Select committee responds to growing complaints
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.AN ALL-PARTY committee of MPs is to hold an investigation into the formula operated by the Child Support Agency for assessing maintenance payments, after receiving hundreds of complaints from divorced and separated fathers who have been ordered to pay huge increases since the agency was set up in April.
Peter Lilley, Secretary of State for Social Security, and Ros Hepplewhite, chief executive of the agency, are to be called to give evidence to the social security select committee in the next few weeks.
The committee decided yesterday to hold an inquiry because of the volume of complaints received by MPs during the summer. Since the agency began work in April it has taken on 500,000 cases and had sent out 20,000 new assessments by the end of August.
Many absent fathers who were not previously paying anything towards the upkeep of their children are unemployed or on low incomes and so will be exempt from paying. A leaked memorandum showed staff were being encouraged to target middle-class parents who already had court orders and were therefore easiest to trace, to help meet the Government's target of saving pounds 530m this year.
Frank Field, the committee's Labour chairman, said: 'We remain supportive of the Child Support Agency and the reforms, but we are going to look into how it operates in practice. Given the enormous number of letters we have had we know what the grievances are and we will use these as the basis for our questioning on the operation of the scheme.
'We will focus on things we feel are unfair. There are clean break settlements in which fathers have handed over the house or equity from it in exchange for low maintenance payments and these payments are being overturned. We warned this would be a real bone of contention but the Government rejected taking this into account.
'There are fathers who have remarried and are having to support stepchildren because their natural father is unemployed or on low income and does not have to pay. There is also a case for phasing in increased payments over, say, two years to give fathers a chance to readjust their finances.'
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments