HC Deb 19 October 1998 vol 317 cc935-7
1. Maria Eagle (Liverpool, Garston)

What representations he has received on the Green Paper on reforms to the Child Support Agency. [53466]

The Secretary of State for Social Security (Mr. Alistair Darling)

We published our proposals for reform of the Child Support Agency in July. The consultation period is not due to end until the end of November, but about 750 responses have been received so far. It is already clear that our proposals for a simple, straightforward and transparent service have widespread support.

Maria Eagle

I thank my right hon. Friend for his reply. I welcome him to his new position, as I think that this is the first time that he has appeared on the Treasury Bench since the reshuffle. I welcome also his ministerial colleagues, whose careers I am following with great interest. Has my right hon. Friend come across situations such as those in my constituency where self-employed absent parents who appear to be living wealthy lives seem to have received nil assessments from the CSA and are escaping maintenance? Will he devise a way to make sure that self-employed absent parents are properly assessed by the CSA?

Mr. Darling

First, I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her words of welcome. My ministerial colleagues and I will be glad to hear that she will watch our careers with great interest. Secondly, on her substantive point, it is a matter of concern to the Government that 1.8 million children are not receiving a penny in maintenance from their non-resident parents and, in particular, that there are self-employed people who have managed to avoid paying any money partly because of the assessment levied on them.

In the short term, we have established a special unit within the CSA to deal with self-employed people. In the long term—as we made clear in the Green Paper—we are looking at using the tax system to provide a clear indication of what someone's liability for tax should be. I am concerned that people who have money and are due money, pay money to their children. A central part of the reform of the CSA according to the new, simpler system that we propose is that, instead of spending 90 per cent. of our time making assessments and only 10 per cent. enforcing judgments, we will alter that balance greatly to ensure that people pay what they are due to their children.

Mr. David Rendel (Newbury)

I join the hon. Member for Liverpool, Garston (Maria Eagle) in welcoming the Secretary of State to his new position. In doing so, I look forward to several months of constructive opposition from my party. Are the many supportive representations that he tells us he has received mainly on the ground that the over-complication of the present system is beyond belief? It is certainly causing enormous problems. Is it not true that, by simplifying the system, he may endanger himself, in the sense that the original system—introduced by the Conservative Government—was known to be unfair because it was so simple? Is there not a danger that, in the end, he may find that his own simplified system is more complicated? Is he prepared to listen to further representations from members of the National Association for Child Support Action when they visit the House on 18 November?

Mr. Darling

That was certainly a complicated question, Madam Speaker. I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind remarks, and I hope that he will be in opposition for longer than just a few months. With regard to his point about the formula, we believe that a simpler formula will be quicker to implement, and that therefore we will get payment far quicker than at present. The system will be more readily understood, will deliver money to the parent with care and will benefit the children themselves.

Mr. Malcolm Wicks (Croydon, North)

Given that the modern family tragedy is that most absent fathers do not pay child maintenance for their children and that, in turn, too many of those fathers are denied access to their children, will my right hon. Friend work with other Departments and agencies to produce a rounded family policy that will enable all the children in Britain—except in extreme circumstances—to be brought up by both their mother and their father?

Mr. Darling

I strongly believe that someone is a mother or father for life and that contact with children should be maintained. However, I do not believe that there should be linkage between access and payment of sums due for the maintenance of children—they are separate matters. However, I certainly agree with my hon. Friend that absent parents should be encouraged by whatever means are appropriate to maintain contact with the child for whom they are responsible throughout that child's life.

Mr. Edward Leigh (Gainsborough)

Will the Secretary of State kindly direct me to the place in the Labour party manifesto where it states that the Government have plans to tax child benefit?

Mr. Darling

The hon. Gentleman will be aware of the fact that, in his last Budget, the Chancellor increased child benefit and he said that, if there were to be further increases, there was certainly a case for looking at taxation of the higher rate of child benefit, but the point that most people will remember is that it is this party and this Government who have increased child benefit by a record amount. Most people support us in doing that.