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04 October 2013 / Edward Heaton
Issue: 7578 / Categories: Features , Family
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Child’s play?

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Ed Heaton reviews the current child support system & outlines developments over the last 12 months

In December 2012, a number of amendments made to the child support system by the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008 (CMOPA 2008) were brought into force in relation to new applications for child support, involving four or more children. In July of this year, the amendments were rolled out in respect of new applications relating to two or three children. It is clearly just a matter of time before they will be applied also to applications relating to a single child.

But what do the amendments mean in practice? Well, CMOPA 2008 amends the statutory scheme relating to the calculation, collection and enforcement of child support. It effectively introduces a third scheme, its predecessors having been introduced by the Child Support Act 1991 (CSA 1991) and the subsequent Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 (which amended CSA 1991).

This article will highlight some of the latest changes under the third scheme and seek to

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