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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

On average, a parent is a lone parent for three to three and a half years. She then usually moves into work or a new relationship, and if she moves into a new relationship, she also moves into work. That means that she will be dependent on a voluntary arrangement by virtue of being a benefit case for a relatively short time. That is an average; therefore many lone parents will be lone parents for far less. I cannot help preferring a system in which when people become lone parents they are automatically within CMEC. We know that if maintenance does not flow from the father within six weeks, it is not likely to flow at all. We also know from the Australian experience that after about 12 months to two years, his maintenance has often fallen off or fallen away, often because he has moved out of the area and no longer sees the kids or he is in a new relationship. Sustaining it is then very difficult. I would like a register at the very least, but I would be much more confident if we had a system in which for the first year or two they were in the statutory system, and then if both agree because regular payments have been made, they go into a voluntary arrangement. I would be entirely comfortable with that, because if he voluntarily embraces his responsibilities, it is so much better for him, her and the children than the state bearing down on them. I do not disagree with that at all, but I have absolutely no confidence that we will get the outcomes that we want by allowing an immediate movement into a voluntary system in the way that is proposed. The other option would be to require people to go through the portal of a statutory system for at least the first 12 months and then after that if they wished move into a voluntary arrangement, by which time maintenance payments should be flowing regularly, she will know what she is entitled to and we can hope that with any luck a stable state will be maintained. I am very worried that if we do not put some safeguards in, other than just leaving it to the commission to see whether it is working a year or two or three down the line—because a pilot would take a year to set up and another year to get results from and another two years to roll out—it will be too late. Will my noble friend mull over this matter, as I am sure he will want to, and see whether he can help us a bit? We all want the same outcomes; we want him to pay voluntarily and with grace. As a result, the kids will feel that their dad loves them because he is contributing and supporting them as they would wish, in a voluntary way. That is terrific, but I am simply not confident that that will apply for one-third or more of our client base who may go into the voluntary system. For many it will, but for far too many I fear that it will not. Will my noble friend use his experience and ingenuity to look at other ways of at least getting the entry point into maintenance firmed up, to give her greater strength?