Prof Nick Wikeley: The strange demise of the liable relative rule

Nick Wikeley Professor of Law School of Law University of Southampton

The Government's plans to reform the child support system having successfully navigated the Commons are now before the House of Lords in the guise of the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill. This Bill in large part implements the proposals of the Henshaw Report (Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Recovering Child Support: Routes to Responsibility Cm 6894 (2006)) and the Government's subsequent White Paper (DWP A New System of Child Maintenance Cm 6979 (2006)). The main contours of these changes are well known: the abolition of the Child Support Agency (CSA) and its replacement by a new 'leaner and meaner' Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (C-MEC); greater emphasis on encouraging private agreements for child maintenance; reliance on historic income tax data for the purpose of making assessments; and inevitably increased enforcement powers.

One change that has received widespread support has been the radical decision to abolish the statutory requirement that income support claimants must apply for child maintenance (see cl 15 of the 2007 Bill which will repeal s...

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