§ Earl Russellasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many child support cases of reduced benefit direction went to appeal in 1999; and how many appeals were won; and [HL1287]
Whether they believe that there would be a reduction in levels of child poverty if all child support reduced benefit directions were not implemented until confirmed by an appeal tribunal. [HL1289]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Social Security (Baroness Hollis of Heigham)The number of cases with reduced benefit188WA directions that went to appeal in the period April 1999 to February this year was 373. Of these, 99 were successful. The underlying purpose of a reduced benefit direction is to encourage parents with care to apply for child support, unless they have good cause for failing to do so. Delaying the imposition of this penalty until the case had been heard by an appeal tribunal would reduce this incentive effect. It is likely that the result would be substantially more parents with care seeking to avoid child support action, with a consequent increase in levels of child poverty.
More than 80 per cent of parents with care who applied for income support in the last year were happy to co-operate with the Child Support Agency. This means that there are now far fewer reduced benefit directions imposed and that the Child Support Agency is able to pursue regular maintenance for more children.
Over 1 million more children stand to gain from our proposed child support reforms, including 600,000 in the poorest families on income support who will see the benefit of maintenance for the first time through the introduction of a child maintenance premium.
§ Earl Russellasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they undertake ethnic monitoring of families subject to child support reduced benefit directions; and, if so, what is the ethnic composition of those families. [HL1288]
§ Baroness Hollis of HeighamMonitoring of child support reduced benefit directions by ethnic origin is not carried out. The information requested is therefore not available. However, should any parents with care have difficulty in understanding the good cause procedures because English is not their first language, interpreters can be made available.