5.The current system dates from 1993, established by the Child Support Act 1991 (the 1991 Act). In the preceding decade, while the number of children living in lone-parent families increased substantially, the proportion of children receiving maintenance fell – in 1989, 23% of lone parents claiming Income Support* were receiving maintenance, compared to around 50% in 1979. The new child support system was intended to reverse this decline, by providing consistent rules for assessing maintenance liability, and a readily accessible means for collecting and enforcing payment that was due.
6.The 1991 Act set out the structure of a maintenance formula for calculating child support liability. This formula, which took into account the income, housing costs and family responsibilities of both parents, replaced the largely discretionary decisions on maintenance taken by the courts. A system was built up around this formula, administered by the new Child Support Agency (CSA) to ensure the correct calculation of the liability, the collection of maintenance, and enforcement if payment was not forthcoming.
7.Further regulations and the Child Support Act 1995 (the 1995 Act) built upon the 1991 Act. In particular, the 1995 Act introduced the Child Maintenance Bonus, intended as an incentive to encourage parents with care into work, and also introduced the departures scheme which allowed for the assessment of child support liability to take account of exceptional circumstances not recognised in the formula-based assessment.
Part 1: Child Support. Background The current system