The court gave an extensive analysis of the workings of the Child Support Act: (Lady Justice Hale) ‘It is important to bear in mind that the child support scheme is not simply a method for the State to recoup part of its benefit expenditure from the absent parents. It is a replacement both for the former method of doing this and for the court’s powers to make orders between individuals for periodical payments for the maintenance of children. . . . The child support system has elements of private and public law but fundamentally it is a nationalised system for assessing and enforcing an obligation which each parent owes primarily to the child. It replaces the powers of the courts, which can no longer make orders for periodical payments for children save in very limited circumstances. Unless she can secure a voluntary agreement at least as high as that which the CSA would assess, the PWC is expected to look to the Agency to assess her child support according to the formula, whether or not she is on benefit. The fact that it does her no direct good if she is on means-tested benefits, and that much CSA activity so far has been in relation to parents on benefit, does not alter the fundamental characteristics of the scheme.’
Judges:
Lady Justice Hale, Auld and Pill LJJ
Citations:
[2000] 1 FLR 989
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Kehoe CA 5-Mar-2004
The claimant had applied to the Child Support Agncy for maintenance. They failed utterly to obtain payment, and she complained now that she was denied the opportunity by the 1991 Act to take court proceedings herself.
Held: The denial of . .
Cited – Kehoe, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions HL 14-Jul-2005
The applicant contended that the 1991 Act infringed her human rights in denying her access to court to obtain maintenance for her children.
Held: The applicant had no substantive right to take part in the enforcement process in domestic law . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Child Support
Updated: 10 June 2022; Ref: scu.194385