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Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I will speak briefly to Amendments 62BL and 62BM, and in doing so I draw the attention of the House to my interests, which are in the register. I am a former non-executive director of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission and a former chief executive of the National Council for One Parent Families. I want to ask a specific point about these government amendments, which seem to be producing a new formulation that would require an applicant wanting to apply for child maintenance through the CSA to consider with the commission whether it is possible for them to make a private arrangement before being allowed to make such an application. Can the Minister please make it clear to the House just what the applicant would have to do? If I am making an application and I simply say, ““I wish to make an application””, and the agency says, ““Have you considered making a private application?””, and I say, ““Yes, but there is no way that he is ever going to agree to it””, is that enough? Am I then allowed to proceed, or is it intended to be a bigger hurdle than that?