§ Mr. Win GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make it his policy to ensure that no court order for children's maintenance payments are stopped by the Child Support Agency until the parent responsible for child support payments has accepted the agency's(a) temporary and (b) other assessments and agreed to make payments from a specified date. [19920]
§ Mr. Andrew MitchellNo. The child support scheme aims to ensure that all parents maintain their children to the extent that they can afford to do so. Making action conditional on confirmation that the absent parent accepts the assessment would allow such parents to defer indefinitely any enforcement of maintenance by the Child Support Agency.
§ Mr. GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will instruct the Child Support Agency to collect information about the number of court orders for children's maintenance payments which they stop and the date, in each case, that payments begin under Child Support Act 1991 arrangements. [19919]
§ Mr. MitchellNo. The Child Support Agency has no business need to record the number of such cases nor would it serve any reliable policy monitoring function.