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Nick Wikeley - Child Support: the Brave New World

© Copyright LexisNexis 2025. All rights reserved.
Date:6 OCT 2008

Nick Wikeley Professor of Law School of Law University of Southampton.

The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008 (CMOPA 2008) received its Royal Assent on 5 June 2008. Parts 1 2 and 3 of the Act establish the framework for the redesign of the child support system following the Henshaw Report (Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Recovering Child Support: Routes to Responsibility Cm 6894 (TSO 2006)). The 'Other Payments' part of the short title is nothing to do with child maintenance at all - it refers to Part 4 of CMOPA 2008 establishing a new no-fault scheme to make compensation payments to victims of the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma a policy matter which also falls within the DWP remit.

As explained in August [2008] Fam Law 787 some provisions of CMOPA 2008 are already in force (see CMOPA 2008 (Commencement) Order 2008 (SI 2008/1476)). Crucially the requirement that parents with care (PWCs) on income support (or income-based jobseeker's allowance) must apply for child maintenance has been abolished with effect from 14 July 2008 (s 15 of the CMOPA...

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