§ Dr. Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what consideration he has given to changing the child support formula so that children from the first and second families of the absent parent and any stepchildren for whom he or she may be caring are all treated equally when a maintenance assessment is carried out.
§ Mr. BurtIt is a basic principle of child support that, once his or her own personal living costs are met, the first duty of a parent is the support of his or her own children. Where an absent parent has stepchildren in his current family, the stepchildren's natural father has prime responsibility for their support.
However, although the main child support formula does not treat stepchildren as the absent parent's own by making allowance for their living costs, their needs are taken into account when the protected income calculation is made. This ensures that the absent parent and his family will remain significantly above income support levels after the payment of child support maintenance. The changes which we introduced in February increased this protection and will be particularly helpful to absent parents with step-families.