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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

I was asked under what mechanism we will know whether the voluntary arrangements are secure and effective for those entering into them. We do that at a macro level, through the various surveys that take place routinely, but we also have the information and support service. Right at the start of these arrangements, we envisage that that service will explain to parents what the statutory system might produce and the sort of factors that they might take into account in a negotiation. A pro forma standard maintenance would be offered as part of that discussion and there would be reference to the need to comply with the arrangements. Moreover, the information and support service is being designed so that when people enter the benefit system there is a clear link to align them so that the service can make contact with them. There is another route into that service for people who claim tax credits. Again, there will be an arrangement with HMRC of referrals into that information and support service, providing another link for those parents. If people are in and out of benefits and tax credits, and their lives are as my noble friend suggests, already loops are being built into that information and support service to enable them to be reached on an ongoing basis. So I think that there are protections. I would not for a moment suggest that there are not risks for the most vulnerable people in all of this, and we need to work very hard to make sure that the most vulnerable are protected and properly advised. I envisage that a significant number of them would and should use the statutory service, which is why we also need to make sure that it is effective and is delivering. There are a number of routes on an ongoing basis to keep contact with that group. It is an important issue, and the information support service, as it is being built, will particularly have to focus on that.