Benefits Uprating

Debate between Gloria De Piero and Steve Webb

Tuesday 6th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Gloria De Piero (Ashfield) (Lab)]

Children’s well-being does not just depend on benefits; it is often about child maintenance, too. So what is fair about charging single parents to use the Child Support Agency?

[Steve Webb]

The Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Maria Miller) brought forward proposals only this week to make child maintenance more effective, because, as the hon. Lady rightly says, getting child maintenance paid is crucial. We believe that far too little is paid and the cost of collecting it is disproportionate to what we receive, so we need an efficient child maintenance system, and that is what we propose to bring forward.