One is that the agency be scrapped altogether, and at last theGovernment appears to be prepared to do this. It has said it wants toreplace the agency with a new, slimmed-down body that only takes oncases where parents have not been able to come to their own privatearrangements, or where parents have defaulted on payments.
Another good suggestion that the Government appears to have taken onboard is to increase significantly the amount of maintenance thatparents on benefit can keep before their benefit is cut back.
It is doubtful, however, whether new sanctions for non-payment announcedby Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton, including electronic taggingand the seizure of passports, are actually needed when existingsanctions, which include fines and the seizure of driving licenses, arenot being used due to the slim chance of defaulting parents actuallybeing caught.
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