§ Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will arrange that in future his Department shall take a parent to court for non-payment or increase of maintenance rather than insist that the mother should do so.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe hon. Member is presumably referring to mothers who are receiving supplementary benefit from the Department and who have maintenance orders in respect of children.
If such an order is not being complied with it can be enforced only on the instruction of the person to whom it is payable. Likewise, it is only the payee who can seek upward variation of an order.
The Department does not insist that a mother should enforce or seek to vary her order. In appropriate cases officers advise mothers how to seek enforcement or variation, and in practice the vast majority of mothers are willing to take such action. In those cases where they will not do so the Supplementary Benefits Commission considers using its own powers to seek a separate order against the father.