§ Mr. HunterTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will amend the Child Support (Maintenance and Special Cases) Regulations 1992, Schedule 1 Part II Para 7, to exclude working families tax credit awards from the assessment of child support maintenance. [70097]
§ Malcolm Wicks[holding answer 15 July 2002]: No. There are no plans exclude working families tax credit awards from the assessment of child support maintenance. It is only fair that the same level of income in different cases should be treated the same for assessment (current scheme) or calculation (new scheme) regardless of the source of that income.
§ Mr. HunterTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what representations he has received about the inclusion of working families tax credit awards in the assessment of child support maintenance. [70096]
§ Malcolm Wicks[holding answer 15 July 2002]: Some individual clients have written to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, to their MP, or to the Agency commenting adversely that awards of working families tax credit are taken into account for the non-resident parent's income, but not for that of the Parent with Care. No organised representations have been made.
§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of how long it will take to transfer existing cases to the new child support scheme for calculating maintenance payments made by non-resident parents. [69530]
§ Malcolm WicksNo decision on the date for the commencement of the new child support scheme has been taken. The Government have made clear that they will see how the new scheme is progressing before reaching a decision on new cases, but our current assumption is that existing cases will convert to the new scheme around a year after the new scheme is introduced for new cases.
§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the average sum in maintenance paid by non-resident parents under the child support scheme which existed prior to April; and how many of these will see their payments(a) increased and (b) decreased under the new child support scheme, with an average calculation made of increase and decrease. [69532]
§ Malcolm WicksThe available information is in the table.
Average maintenance paid in the current child support scheme Number of qualifying children Average per week (£)> One 7.98 Two 10.65 Three 10.23 Note:
Includes nil assessments.
Source:
5 per cent. scan of the Child Support Computer System August 2001.
It is not possible to make firm estimates of the change to the average payment of child support maintenance as a result of the introduction of the new child support scheme.