April 7th deadline

www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2011/strengthening-families.shtml

Charging – charges are intended to encourage parents to take greater responsibility in decision-making, through increased consideration of family-based arrangements, whilst providing appropriate value for money to the taxpayer.
The following charges are proposed:
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An upfront application charge of around £100 to be paid by the applicant.
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A total application charge for parents on benefits in the range of £50 with £20 of this paid upfront and the remainder paid in instalments. The instalments for the application only become payable where maintenance is in payment. Therefore a parent on benefit who applies will never pay more than the upfront charge of £20 if no maintenance is received from the application.
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A charge of £20-25 for the calculation only service to be paid by the applicant.
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A collection surcharge (on top of maintenance to be paid) of between 15 per cent and 20 per cent to be paid by the non-resident parent.
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A collection deduction charge (retained from maintenance collected for the parent with care) of between 7 per cent and 12 per cent.
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Charge on the non-resident parent when enforcement measures (e.g. an order of sale for property) need to be used because of non-compliance.
Maintenance Direct Policy – the Government will seek to change primary legislation to allow the non-resident parent to choose to take the case to maintenance direct. This will allow both parents to avoid paying an ongoing charge as long as the non-resident parent is prepared to pay through maintenance direct on time and in full. Currently both parents need to agree to use maintenance direct. This is intended to incentivise compliance and collaboration between families and therefore parental responsibility.
How to respond to this consultation

Start date 13 January 2011
End date 7 April 2011

You can respond by post or email as follows:

child maintenance Sponsorship and Strategic Policy Division
1st Floor,
Caxton House
Tothill Street
London
SW1H 9NA

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please ensure your response reaches us by 7 April 2011

Hi,

does anyone know if there have been any changes to the law to allow charging?

I know when the CSA was first introduced they charged for the service but the charges were challenged by several NRPs. The argument was that it was illegal to charge for something yhat someone hadn't requested. Since these people paid maintenance without problems before the CSA and it was the PWC that was now requesting the use of the new service these people argued that the charges were illegal. Charges were dropped and never re-introduced.