Child Maintenance Options

Last updated

Child Maintenance Options is an information and support service that gives free and impartial help to separating or separated parents in Great Britain so they can make informed choices about child maintenance. [1]

Contents

The service discusses the different options available to separated and separating families regarding child maintenance.

About the service

Child Maintenance Options gives separated parents the information they need to put in place the maintenance agreement most suited to their needs. This could be a family-based arrangement (also called private agreement), an arrangement made under the UK government’s statutory child maintenance [2] scheme (currently managed by the Child Maintenance Service) or one enforced by a court Consent Order (or Minute of Agreement in Scotland).

It also has a variety of tools on its website to help separated parents make family-based arrangements. These include a discussion guide, a family-based arrangement pack, video case studies from parents who have used the service and a range of leaflets.

The service can also give customers an estimated calculation of the amount of maintenance that would be payable if they used the Child Maintenance Service. The estimate is based on the Child Maintenance Service’s own formula, which takes account of factors like shared care, income and other children. Parents can use their estimate as the basis for working out an appropriate maintenance amount between themselves. The service also has an online child maintenance calculator that anyone can use.

The service also helps with a range of wider separation issues like housing, childcare, legal issues and debt and has links to other organisations and support services that it recommends to customers.

As well as separated and separating parents, the service is available to grandparents and other relatives and friends of separated families, people with a professional interest in finding out more about child maintenance, and others.

History of Child Maintenance Options

In July 2006, Sir David Henshaw reported on his findings following the fundamental review of the UK’s child support systems that he had carried out over the previous six months.

One of the Henshaw Report’s recommendations was that any government strategy on child support should include as one of its key principles the provision of information and support to help parents meet their child maintenance responsibilities. [3]

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission was established in 2008 and is currently responsible for the child maintenance system in Great Britain. It has a primary objective to maximise the number of effective child maintenance arrangements in place and a statutory duty to provide an information and guidance service. Child Maintenance Options was launched in July 2008 to meet this statutory duty.

Around 200 experts work at Child Maintenance Options answering people’s queries on the phone, by e-mail, via the live chat service on their website or providing face-to-face support when needed. [4]

In 2010, Child Maintenance Options ran a national promotional campaign, involving TV, radio, online and print advertising. This generated 66,500 calls to the service showing a growing demand for this type of support. [5]

Impact of Child Maintenance Options

As of September 2010, Child Maintenance Options had handled more than 500,000 successful contacts (defined as a meaningful conversation about child maintenance) and had more than a million hits on its website. [6]

As at March 2011 around 91,000 children were benefiting from a family-based arrangement set up by separated parents after contact with the service. [7]

The success of the Options service was further demonstrated in 2010 by its success in winning the Contact Centre Association Global Service Excellence award for Best Outsourcing Partnership, [8] as well as being shortlisted to the final three for the Best Public Service award at the 2010 Civil Service Awards. [9]

Related Research Articles

In family law and public policy, child support is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child following the end of a marriage or other relationship. Child maintenance is paid directly or indirectly by an obligor to an obligee for the care and support of children of a relationship that has been terminated, or in some cases never existed. Often the obligor is a non-custodial parent. The obligee is typically a custodial parent, a caregiver, a guardian, or the state.

A parenting plan is a child custody plan that is negotiated by parents, and which may be included in a marital separation agreement or final decree of divorce. Especially when a separation is acrimonious to begin with, specific agreements about who will discharge these responsibilities and when and how they are to be discharged can reduce the need for litigation. Avoiding litigation spares parties not only the financial and emotional costs of litigation but the uncertainty of how favorable or unfavorable a court's after-the-fact decision will be. Moreover, the agreement itself can authorize the employment of dispute-resolution methods, such as arbitration and mediation, that may be less costly than litigation.

The Child Support Agency (CSA) was a delivery arm of the Department for Work and Pensions in Great Britain and the former Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland. Launched on 5 April 1993, the CSA failed to implement the Child Support Act 1991 and subsequent legislation fairly leaving tens of thousands of non residential parents paying out more than they would if they had their children full time. The CSA was replaced in the long term by its successor launched in 2012, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS).

Fathers rights movement in the United Kingdom

The fathers' rights movement in the United Kingdom consists of a large number of diverse pressure groups, ranging from charities and self-help groups to civil disobedience activists in the United Kingdom, who started to obtain wide publicity in 2003. Studies show the majority of the UK population support the need for change and protection of fathers rights to meet the responsibility through 50:50 contact. The movement's origin can be traced to 1974 when Families Need Fathers (FNF) was founded. At the local level, many activists spend much time providing support for newly separated fathers, most of whom are highly distraught. Although some have been accused of being sexist by some commentators, these groups also campaign for better treatment for excluded mothers, women in second marriages, other step-parents and grandparents - all of whom suffer discrimination in respect of contact with their (grand) child(ren).

In the United Kingdom and the nations of the European Union, parental responsibility refers to the rights and privileges which underpin the relationship between the children and the children's parents and those adults who are granted parental responsibility by either signing a 'parental responsibility agreement' with the mother or getting a 'parental responsibility order' from a court. The terminology for this area of law now includes matters dealt with as contact and residence in some states.

Child custody is a legal term regarding guardianship which is used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent or guardian and a child in that person's care. Child custody consists of legal custody, which is the right to make decisions about the child, and physical custody, which is the right and duty to house, provide and care for the child. Married parents normally have joint legal and physical custody of their children. Decisions about child custody typically arise in proceedings involving divorce, annulment, separation, adoption or parental death. In most jurisdictions child custody is determined in accordance with the best interests of the child standard.

Australian family law is principally found in the federal Family Law Act 1975 as well as in other laws and the common law and laws of equity, which affect the family and the relationship between those people, including when those relationships end. Most family law is practised in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, Family Court of Australia or the Family Court of Western Australia depending on the location and complexity of the matter. Australia recognises marriages entered into overseas as well as divorces obtained overseas if they were effected in accordance with the laws of that country. Australian marriage and "matrimonial causes" are recognised by sections 51(xxi) and (xxii) of the Constitution of Australia and internationally by marriage law and conventions, such as the Hague Convention on Marriages (1978).

The Child Support Agency (CSA) was an Australian Government organisation which was established in 1988 to administer the assessment and collection of child support under the Australian Government's Child Support Scheme.

In family law, contact, visitation and access are synonym terms that denotes the time that a child spends with the non-custodial parent, according to an agreed or court specified parenting schedule. The visitation term is not used in a shared parenting arrangement where the mother and father have joint physical custody.

An unaccompanied minor is a child without the presence of a legal guardian.

The fathers' rights movement has simultaneously evolved in many countries, advocating for shared parenting after divorce or separation, and the right of children and fathers to have close and meaningful relationships. This article provides details about the fathers' rights movement in specific countries.

International child abduction in Japan

International child abduction in Japan refers to the illegal international abduction or removal of children from their country of habitual residence by an acquaintance or family member to Japan or their retention in Japan in contravention to the law of another country. Most cases involve a Japanese mother taking her children to Japan in defiance of visitation or joint custody orders issued by Western courts. The issue is a growing problem as the number of international marriages increases. Barring exceptional circumstances, the effects of child abduction are generally detrimental to the welfare of children. Parental abduction often has a particularly devastating effect on parents who may never see their children again.

The fathers' rights movement in Australia focus on issues of erosion of the family unit, child custody, shared parenting, child access, child support, domestic violence against men, false allegations of domestic violence, child abuse, the reintroduction of fault into divorce proceedings, gender bias, the adversarial family court system and secrecy issues.

Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission was a non-departmental public body established to take responsibility for the child maintenance system in Great Britain.

The term international child abduction is generally synonymous with international parental kidnapping,child snatching, and child stealing. However, the more precise legal usage of international child abduction originates in private international law and refers to the illegal removal of children from their home by an acquaintance or family member to a foreign country. In this context, "illegal" is normally taken to mean "in breach of custodial rights" and "home" is defined as the child's habitual residence. As implied by the "breach of custodial rights," the phenomenon of international child abduction generally involves an illegal removal that creates a jurisdictional conflict of laws whereby multiple authorities and jurisdictions could conceivably arrive at seemingly reasonable and conflicting custodial decisions with geographically limited application. Such a result often strongly affects a child's access and connection to half their family and may cause the loss of their former language, culture, name and nationality, it violates numerous children's rights, and can cause severe psychological and emotional trauma to the child and family left behind.

Brussels II

Brussels II Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003, also called Brussels IIA or II bis is a European Union Regulation on conflict of law issues in family law between member states; in particular those related to divorce, child custody and international child abduction. It replaces Convention Council Regulation (EC) No 1347/2000 of 29 May 2000 on the jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and in matters of parental responsibility for joint children. The regulation applies to all EU member states except Denmark.

The British Columbia Family Maintenance Enforcement Program (FMEP) is a Provincial Government service established by the British Columbia Ministry of Justice in 1988. The program monitors and enforces maintenance orders and agreements for child support and spousal support. Annually, the program assists approximately 45,000 families, 58,000 children and collects and disburses over $200 million (CAD) in maintenance payments each year.

Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act

The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act is a US bill that would address federal adoption incentives and would amend the Social Security Act (SSA) to require the state plan for foster care and adoption assistance to demonstrate that the state agency has developed policies and procedures with respect to the children it is working, and which are (possibly) a victim of sex trafficking or a severe form of trafficking in persons. The bill furthermore requires states to implement the 2008 UIFSA version, which is required so the 2007 Hague Maintenance Convention can be ratified by the US.

Child Maintenance Group delivery arm of the Department for Work and Pensions

The Child Maintenance Group(CMG) is an external organisation working for the Department for Work and Pensions in Great Britain and the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland. Launched in 2012 to replace its predecessor, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the CMG is responsible for implementing the Child Support Act 1991 and subsequent legislation in the form of its two services, the Child Support Agency and from 2012 its long-term successor, the Child Maintenance Service.

References

  1. ↑ "Child Maintenance Options official website".
  2. ↑ Child Maintenance Archived March 18, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Glossary of Law
  3. ↑ "Sir David Henshaw's report to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Recovering child support: routes to responsibility, July 2006" (PDF).
  4. ↑ Bennett, Rosemary (31 October 2008). "Putting a price on parental responsibility, The Times (London) 31 October, 2008".
  5. ↑ "Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission annual report and accounts 2009/10" (PDF).
  6. ↑ "Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission Board Summary Minutes of the Commission Board Meeting 21 September 2010" (PDF).
  7. ↑ "More parents offered child maintenance help (press release: 1 March 2011)".
  8. ↑ "And the winners are...,CCA Excellence Awards 2010 Winners". Archived from the original on 2011-01-11.
  9. ↑ "Civil Service network Public Service Award winners". Archived from the original on 2012-03-18. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.