Child Support (Hansard, 24 March 2003)

§ Malcolm Wicks

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to my right hon. Friend.

Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Frank Field, dated 24 March 2003: The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive. You ask how many mothers with care have exercised their right not to give the name of the father of a child for which they are applying to receive or receiving maintenance since the Child Support Agency became operational; and if he will disaggregate this by the reason given by the mother for not giving the father's name. I do not have the information to answer this fully. I do however have some relevant information in relation to sole parents who are in receipt of "prescribed benefits". They are obliged to provide information to the Agency. Some parents may not wish to involve the Agency because they have a genuine fear of violence or intimidation from the other alleged parent, or where there are child welfare issues, which would mean that it would not be prudent to contact the other parent. We do not press the parent with care to provide information about the other alleged parent if there are reasonable grounds to believe that to do so may harm or distress the parent with care or any child living with her—this is known as "good cause". I do not have figures relating to periods before April 1997. Since then approximately 650,000 applications have been made for "good cause". Around 79 per cent. of those accepted, or 120,000 cases, were on the grounds of a genuine fear of violence or intimidation. I do not know how many of these applications were from mothers rather than fathers.