Witnessing child abuse exempts you from CMS fee
Single parents who apply to the Child Maintenance Service for financial assistance will no longer have to pay the £20 fee if they can demonstrate that they witnessed the abuse of their children. The...
View ArticleGovernment announces child maintenance ‘clampdown’
The government has announced a new measure to prevent parents avoiding child maintenance payments. At the moment, child maintenance payments can only be claimed from a bank or building society account...
View ArticleThe problem of enforcing child maintenance against joint accounts
Enforcement of orders requiring one party to pay money to another is often not easy, and not cheap. In all cases therefore careful consideration must be given to the prospects of success before...
View ArticleChild maintenance evaders targeted by new bill
A private member’s bill on child maintenance evasion has received its first reading in the House of Commons. Heidi Allen is the Tory MP for South Cambridgeshire. She introduced the Child Maintenance...
View ArticleBlood from a stone: new initiatives to recover child maintenance
I think it is putting it mildly to say that the issue of actually recovering child maintenance from non-resident parents has been the bane of the child support maintenance system ever since it was...
View ArticleChild maintenance, unrepresented litigants and more
Three weeks in family law With the Xmas and New Year break, and my review of the year overflowing into a third post, it is now three weeks since my last Friday review of events. This is a quick summary...
View ArticleDWP publishes new guide to help for domestic abuse
The Department for Work and Pensions has published a new guide to the services they provide for victims of domestic abuse. It outlines the different benefits available to those who need them, such as...
View ArticleDivorce Day, domestic abuse, and a new Lord Chancellor
A week in family law It’s been a bit of a quiet week on the family law news front, although that’s not unusual for this time of year. Perhaps there are still a few post-Xmas hangovers out there. There...
View Article‘Family based’ arrangements working well says government
The overwhelming majority of ‘family-based arrangements’ between divorced parents work smoothly, the government has claimed. ‘Family-based arrangements’ are voluntary agreements between parents to pay...
View ArticleChild maintenance statistics, online divorce and more
A week in family law We begin with the release of the latest child support/maintenance statistics by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). These statistics, which relate to the three months up to...
View Article