The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill, published last week, isset to replace the much-maligned Child Support Agency with the ChildMaintenance and Enforcement Commission (C-MEC), a body at arms-lengthfrom Government, and with tougher powers.
Under the Bill, parents would be encouraged to come to privateagreements on financial support for children, rather than being requiredto comply with officially set maintenance arrangements, as happensnow.
But C-MEC would be able to fine non-resident parents who default onpayments to help recover costs incurred when tracking them down. Itcould also take money from bank accounts, confiscate passports andenforce curfews on parents who fail to pay.
The Bill was launched on the day that letters were sent to 100 parents,asking if they objected to their former partners being named and shamedon the agency's web site for not paying child maintenance - a movedismissed as a gimmick by Kate Green, chief executive of the ChildPoverty Action Group.
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