§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make it his policy to introduce proposals for the Child Support Agency which will enable a repayment or payments at once if an overpayment has been made to the Child Support Agency resulting from an error by the Child Support Agency.
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§ Mr. BurtWe have been considering the current provisions in the Child Support Act and regulations relating to overpaid maintenance and have concluded that some changes are necessary. We propose to amend regulation 10 of the Arrears, Interest and Adjustment of Maintenance Assessment Regulations to give the child support officer greater discretion in setting the amount by which current maintenance can be reduced when maintenance has been over paid. The amendment will be tabled in March for introduction in April.
However, some cases will still remain where such an adjustment will not be possible or where it will give an unreasonable result. For example, there may be no current maintenance liability which could be reduced to take account of an overpayment, or only a small reduction will be possible meaning the overpayment would be repaid over an unreasonably long period. We therefore propose to include in the forthcoming Child Support Bill a measure to enable the Child Support Agency to reimburse the absent parent in such circumstances.