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Child Support (Miscellaneous and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2009

My Lords, it seems to me that salary sacrifice, if you are forgoing something for another benefit in some other form, is a diversion of income. I hang on to my point that in terms of constructing the basis of the new scheme, this was done on the basis of needing to have HMRC data that could be used straight away without needing to be adjusted in any way. If people were playing the game in terms of the level of their pension contributions, and if, as they overwhelmingly do not, people routinely did not seek to abuse the system, we would just take that data. If we had to say, ““Well, only 50 per cent of it is allowable””, then there would be some other process in the system. That is what we looked aside from, and looked instead to rely upon the variations—the diversion of income—as now bolstered so that it addresses not just the diversion of income but also the issue of getting income and then deploying part of it, which nets off the income in a way that produces an unsatisfactory result. I hope that that has explained why we have ended up where we are. The noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, is looking a bit sceptical. I am happy to run over this again or perhaps talk to him afterwards, but I am sure he will reflect on our discussions. That is the substance of these regulations, and I agree with the sentiments of the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale: it is outrageous that people should seek to use these mechanisms in order not to pay their proper dues in respect of their children. Thankfully, only a very few do so. This is not widespread; if it were, that might have affected the judgment we made about constructing the new scheme. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, raised the changes regarding the disability premium. That was nothing to do with changing the age at which pensioners might be responsible for the child maintenance; it is just that in the old scheme, and in that scheme only, an allowance that the non-resident parent—or, I think, the parent with care—could get was described in terms of an allowance that was receivable by the age of 60. That is changing because it is linked to pension credit, which is linked to state pension age, which, in turn, is changing for women. The noble Lord asked whether the proper description of that should be ““receiving”” or ““entitled””. I would like to take that point away and look at the detail of the regulations, and I will write to him about it if necessary. I thank noble Lords for their engagement on this. It has clearly exercised the Merits Committee, which is good, and the challenge is entirely appropriate. I hope that I have been able to explain why this particular component of the regulations has gone in as it has. I hope, therefore, that the regulations will be supported. Motion agreed.