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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

My Lords, I wish to make only a modest contribution to the Bill on Second Reading, and I do so hesitatingly in the light of the vast knowledge and experience of the previous speakers. It is to be regretted that so many children are affected by the separation of their parents. I pay particular tribute to the organisations, professionals, courts and individuals that work to support families around this traumatic transition, many of whom are working on shoestring budgets without any long-term funding. My colleague the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester recently chaired a meeting for Members of this House at which some of those agencies and organisations movingly and powerfully expressed their concerns about these matters. We have already heard some of those concerns expressed today. Perhaps another noble Lord present in the Chamber will elaborate further on the concerns evidenced at that meeting. As organisations such as One Parent Families/Gingerbread and National Family Mediation have reminded us on many occasions, only one-third—one in three—of one-parent families receives any support from the non-resident parent. The Government have reaffirmed their commitment to ending child poverty by 2020, and yet receipt of maintenance has a significant impact on children’s chances of growing up poor. If we are going to achieve the Government’s targets on child poverty, it is vitally important that this issue of maintenance is sorted out properly, particularly for the most vulnerable in our communities. Children are a gift, but creating a child also creates positive responsibilities towards that child. I sincerely hope that the Bill creates a commission that will play its part in helping parents to live up to their responsibilities, with enforcement as a last resort. As I am sure other noble Lords will agree, it would be good if the Bill marked a new era for parents who seek help from an agency to gain their maintenance. As has been said, it is often the parents with the most care responsibilities who tend to be financially worst off after separation or divorce and who find themselves in great personal distress and financial hardship. They need the best available advice and support to work out with their ex-partners how best to provide for the children. Although the Bill only outlines the duties of the commission and does not go into specific details, I hope that the information and services which the new commission gives will be of the highest order and quality. Now that applying for maintenance through the commission will be voluntary, it is important that there are incentives to apply for those parents with care who are unable to get an agreement with the non-resident partner. I am glad that the Government have increased the maintenance disregard for those on benefits and have recognised that the commission’s main purpose is to promote the welfare of the child rather than to claw back benefits. That should directly affect child poverty. However, there is a strong argument for increasing the disregard still further if we wish to move more children out of poverty. We on these Benches wish the Minister success as he pilots this Bill through the House for the good of all the children in our nation.