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21 June 2007 / David Burrows
Issue: 7278 / Categories: Features , Child law , Family
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A brave new world?

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The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill will increase child support troubles, predicts David Burrows

The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill hit the bookstands earlier this month—the “other payments” are in respect of mesothelioma, which bears no immediate relationship to child support. The Bill proposes the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (C-MEC) to do the job which the Child Support Agency (CSA) failed to do, and sets out extensive intended amendments to Child Support Act 1991 (CSA 1991). The already derided CSA 1991, with the separate proposed legislation as well, will be doubled in length. And doubtless the excessively cumbersome regulations will be proportionately extended to cover the new provisions in the Bill. Previous efforts at this legislation have gone through Parliament more or less unopposed; and so too, I suspect, will this. Not at all a propitious start…

A SEMANTIC EXERCISE

The reforming proposals, apart from enforcement, are light. First comes a semantic change with administrative undertones: out goes the CSA—it never had a statutory existence: everything in CSA 1991

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Sponsored by
Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

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Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

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