Who pays for a fathers sins?
RADICAL changes introduced today will force thousands of absent fathers to pay child maintenance and will save the Government pounds 530m a year in benefits to single parents. The new Child Support Agency will be the Treasury’s policeman chasing errant parents. For the taxpayer and for some families the changes will be a boon. They are an important step towards ensuring social responsibility by parents, particularly men. But the meanness of the regulations leaves many children, especially the poorest, with no share in the windfall. Indeed, some may be worse off. This is a result that is hardly in keeping with the new Children Act, which was heralded as making the interests of children central in resolving disputes between parents. Nor is it equitable. It is, however, characteristic of government policy on a number of fronts that has failed to protect the worst off. Last month’s Budget, which will cost the poorest 10 per cent of the population twice as much as the richest, was just the
