In this country child maintenance is almost exclusively the province of the Child Support Agency. Though the Child Support Agency (CSA) is now part of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, effectively little has changed and unless parents come to an agreement, the CSA are likely to be the primary means of obtaining child maintenance if both parents live in this country.

 

CSA was initially set up in conjunction with some important rules about Benefits. Indeed it was widely believed the CSA was created in an attempt primarily to get money back for the Government who were paying Benefits to a significant number of single parents. Accordingly the rule was that if you were in receipt of certain Benefits (particularly Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance), the Government would keep most of the maintenance that was recovered by the CSA, so there would be little benefit to the resident parent. Consequently it was actually compulsory to apply to the CSA, except in cases involving domestic abuse, for many years.

 

The situation was effectively the same even if child maintenance was agreed – apart from a certain amount, voluntary maintenance would simply reduce the primary Benefits by the amount of the maintenance paid, so the resident parent would be little better off.

 

That has changed as of 12^th April 2010. Now the resident parent can keep all of the maintenance, whether it is collected via the CSA or paid voluntarily, without it affecting Benefits. Thus it will suddenly very much be in the interests of many resident parents on Benefits to apply for maintenance, where previously it might not have made a great difference.

 

Care is needed in case this affects other matters and it is always wise to first seek advice from solicitors or at least the Citizens Advice Bureau. However potentially this could be a significant benefit to many single parents who are in receipt of Benefits.

 

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