To make paying child maintenance from an absent parent to the parent looking after a child or children when couple split up easier and cheaper to collect a group of MPs looking into the matter have come up with recommendation which includes deducting child maintenance payment directly from pay packets.
A full account of the recommendations is contaned in a BBC article which goes thus:
They found the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission cost 50p for every £1 it collected and had failed to collect £3.8bn in payments due.
The Work and Pensions Committee called on the government to make the child support system more efficient.
The commission replaced the much-criticised Child Support Agency.
The committee found that many separated parents did not receive regular maintenance for their children and in some cases did not get payments at all.
Officials can take money directly from those who fall behind but the committee said direct payments from bank accounts or salaries should be required in all cases.
The government has said it wants to encourage separated parents to come to their own voluntary arrangements.
But its plans to charge a fee and call in officials to collect the payments of couples who cannot reach such an agreement were criticised by the MPs.
They also said the new agency still had operational weaknesses.
read the full story at bbc
