§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many parents with care would have been entitled to receive a maintenance disregard of up to £10 a week if the child support reforms had been implemented on the original planned date; and if he will estimate how much extra in income-related benefits they would have received over this period. [97101]
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§ Malcolm WicksThe information requested is not available. Reliable estimates are not available for the proportion of lone parents who would have claimed Income Support or income based Job Seekers Allowance between April 2002 and March 2003 and for whom maintenance would have been both calculated and paid.
§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his oral Answer of 10 February,Official Report, column 636, on the Child Support Agency, what the latest estimates he has made of the numbers of (a) gainers and (b) losers under the new maintenance calculation formula; and what the average amount (i) gained and (ii) lost is for (A) non-resident parents and (B) parents with care. [98116]
§ Malcolm WicksThe Government is reforming the child support scheme to ensure that more children benefit from regular maintenance. The reformed scheme will enable the Child Support Agency to deliver support more effectively to parents with care and their children, will help non-resident parents meet their responsibilities and will help to tackle child poverty. The new scheme will be more transparent, easier for parents to understand, easier for the Agency to calculate maintenance and enforce payment, so children will get the support they need. It will be based on a simple rate, so non-resident parents will know in advance how much maintenance they must pay.
Of those non-resident parents who are earning an income, about 60 per cent. of will have a reduced maintenance liability, and about 40 per cent. will have an increased liability. A further 60 per cent. of those non-resident parents on benefit will have an increased liability for maintenance. Currently, 75 per cent. of NRPs on benefit are treated as having no liability; under the new scheme we expect them to pay a flat rate of £5 to the parent with care.
About 55 per cent. of working parents with care will have a higher maintenance calculation and 40 per cent. will have a lower one. In addition, more than 90 per cent. of parents with care on income support/income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (around one third of a million people) will gain from the Child Maintenance Premium.
We expect that the majority of changes to maintenance liabilities will be for amounts less than £10.
This data is based on an analysis carried out in 2001, and reflects the position had all cases converted to the new scheme on the day of the scan. Since then, average income levels of non-resident parents have increased, which would reduce the fall in the level of maintenance liabilities. To mitigate the effect of substantial change in individual cases, changes may be phased for up to five years.