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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

My Lords, I listened carefully to the noble Baroness. If this is a probing amendment, it might be worth running with it. However, I have difficulty in supporting the concept that, when all other systems of pursuit have been exhausted, non-resident parents who can pay but will not pay should not be hit by every means known to man. I speak from my previous experience as a Member of the other House. The noble Baroness is right to be cautious about this. If we started using this kind of power as a first resort and in a casual way, her concerns would be absolutely fulfilled. She is right to raise these matters. However, when push comes to shove, there are some parents who make a point of giving the statutory maintenance authorities the runaround. In such circumstances, wasting their credit rating is a threat that is probably more appropriate and acute in making them see sense and shape up to their responsibilities than almost anything else—that and selling their houses. In the past, the CSA has been too slow in using some of the powers that have been available to it. The commission that we are setting up has more entrenched and deeper powers. That is right and proper. Although the concerns raised by the noble Baroness about misuse of this power may be well founded, I cannot for the life of me see that it is wrong. With some assurances that it will be reserved for really hard cases, where all other eventualities have been tried, I cannot see that it is wrong for people’s credit ratings to be attacked positively if that is the only way of getting them to shape up to their financial responsibilities. I would encourage CMEC to do that, but only in circumstances where there are few other alternatives and all the other methods available to them have been exhausted.