§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether he will consider waiving voluntary maintenance payments paid by parents who exercise long periods of access to but do not have custody of their children, while they are looking after the children for whom the maintenance payments are made.
§ Mr. BurtA voluntary payment negotiated by the Department with the absent parent can be re-negotiated if the absent parent's circumstances change. If the absent parent feels that the amount of voluntary payment is too high because he has contact with the children for significant periods of time, he can tell the child support unit and it will consider this in negotiating a payment level with him.
The new child support system which comes into effect on 5 April 1993 has a clear rule to provide for cases of shared care. The maintenance payable will be reduced pro rata if the absent parent satisfies the condition that the child lives with him for a total of at least 104 nights a year.