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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

The answer is that no, it would not be. I referred to investment income. That is one case in which you could not just go to HMRC to have that broader calculation; in some cases it would have details of investment income and in others it would not. To base a system of child maintenance on whether that information was returnable to HMRC would not be right. We are saying that for employment and self-employment income—broadly, earned income under old-style terminology—yes, it would be possible to do that. But to take account of other income or lifestyle using the variations route, we would start with the current arrangements and look at capital of £65,000 and impute an income to that—which is what happens under the current scheme—rather than access individual details of individual investment income, capital gains or rental income. In due course it may be possible to take account routinely and automatically of these broader issues, but that is not where we are starting. In that regard, that mirrors the current system. We are not saying on day one that the treatment of investment income is going to be any different from that which applies currently, with the exception that the route into possibly taking account of that through variations might be more accessible.