Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission

As I mentioned in my earlier post there are changes in child support coming into force. From today parents with care can choose to leave the CSA and make their own arrangements for child maintenance with the other parent of their child(ren). Information on the choices for arranging child maintenance are available from Child Maintenance Options, a new service set up to support parents in setting up the most effective maintenance arrangement for them.

Summary of the changes from today

* If parents stay with the CSA any child maintenance collected on their behalf is paid directly to the parent with care.

* When the parent with care is on benefit, it is their responsibility to inform Job Centre Plus of the amount of maintenance received whether or not you stay with the CSA.

* Parents with care are able to keep up to £20 a week of any child maintenance paid before it affects the amount of benefit they may receive.

* The Child Maintenance Bonus is coming to an end. Parents with care must satisfy the qualifying criteria and have stopped claiming benefit by 26 November to be entitled to any bonus that may have built up. They then have a further four weeks to claim the bonus.

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission take on legal responsibility for the CSA’s work on 1 November.