Child Support: What the White Paper Doesn't Say

David Burrows Solicitor Advocate. The child support scheme has thrown up a judicial system which is confusing for lawyers familiar with it; but for the layman for which it is designed (Legal Aid is rarely available for child support proceedings) it must be the stuff of severe anxiety outright confusion and many sleepless nights. While the Government is amending the scheme of calculation and enforcement of child maintenance (see the child support White Paper A new system of child maintenance Cm 6979 (Department of Work and Pensions 2006)) the extent to which the child support scheme needs an effective and fair judicial and appeals system must be addressed also.

There is a clear need for reform of the current system which is overly complicated. The existing appeals system under the Child Support Act 1991 to the appeals tribunals has relied almost entirely on a system which was originally set up to deal with social security benefits. This appeals system and the wider adjudicative aspects of the scheme means that six or seven different courts and tribunals all with...

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