The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill was re-introduced to Parliament on November 7.

The bill:

• Encourages parents to make their own maintenance arrangements
• Replaces the Child Support Agency with the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission;
• Introduces new sanctions on absent parents who do not pay child support, including curfews and the suspension of passports; and
• Allows parents to keep more of their maintenance allowance before it impacts upon their benefits. The Comprehensive Spending Review clarified that the maintenance disregard will increase from £10 to £20 a week in 2008, and to £40 a week by 2010-11. In addition the child maintenance disregard in Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit will increase from £15 per week to a full disregard by 2010-11.

The Bill will include specific provisions for Wales.

 Further details of the provisions in the bill are available in the Explanatory Notes to it. The Explanatory Notes and the Bill can both be downloaded from Parliament’s website.