The CSA - Now is Not the Time to be Squeamish

Angela Moores head of the family law team and Rachel Marsden solicitors Ricksons. In February 2006 the government eventually had to acknowledge that the Child Support Agency (CSA) was simply not working and a new system for child support had to be designed. When Sir David Henshaw was asked to consult and come up with recommendation for a new system we watched in anticipation. In July 2006 his report Recovering child support: routes to responsibility(Cm 6894) was published.

The authors say that perhaps of most interest to family lawyers is the proposal that parents be able to choose to enter into consent orders for child support via the courts and for those orders to endure beyond the 12-month limitation that we currently face for orders made after 2003. It is thought around 10 000 consent orders a year are currently made for child support and the report considers that this route together with variation and enforcement should be available to those parents who can agree on child support. Once in the court system child support would forever stay within the system for that child with...

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