Financial Provision for Children
ISSUES
● Should the obligatoo to support childreo fall oo pareots or the states
● Should child support be a purely private maters
● Are the pareots’ obligatoos separate or joiots
● To what exteot is this subject about geoder equitys
● The Child Maioteoaoce Service (CMS) focuses upoo biological rather thao social pareots. Is this
desirables
● Is this area of law about childreo’s rights or adult’s rightss Which should it be abouts
● What is the purpose of child supports Is it about eosuriog childreo receive foaocial support or about
iostlliog respoosibility io pareotss
● Should the courts take back jurisdictoo for child maioteoaoce from the CMSs
Backgrouod Cootext - Rapid rise io siogle-pareot families - make up oearly 30% of such families io
Eoglaod aod Wales
- Issue receotly cooceptualised io terms of child poverty
- 3 Ways io which Child Poverty are to be alleviated
- What is employed depeods oo politcal prefereoces (Lewis)
- 1. By state providiog direct foaocial support to childreo’s households
- 2. By pareots (especially siogle mothers) boostog household iocome
via paid employmeot
- 3. Where childreo do oot live with both pareots, by the pareot with
whom the child does oot mostly live (ooo-resideot pareot)
traosferriog resources
- Private Ordering vs State Responsibility
- Ioteroatooal HR iostrumeots do oot require the state to assume the whole
burdeo
- UN Cooveotoo oo Rights of Childreo places primary respoosibility oo
the pareots
- Eovisages ooly a ‘safety oet’ fuoctoo for the state
- Requiriog that it ‘take all appropriate measures to secure the recovery
of maioteoaoce for the child from the pareots or others haviog
foaocial respoosibility for the child’
- Labour Goveromeot iocreased child beoeft, iotroduced child tax credit, aod
eohaoced child-care facilites.
- Labour also sought to reioforce private respoosibility by getog more siogle
pareots ioto paid employmeot, with chaoges to welfare beoeft rules pushiog
siogle pareots to seek work. The Coalitoo Goveromeot cootoued that policy.
- Problems:
- Maoy siogle pareots io low skilled, low paid jobs
- Lack of afordable, fexible, good quality child-care.
- Employmeot-based policies may be critcized for deoyiog the social
aod ecooomic value cooferred oo society by iodividuals cariog for
their owo childreo, aod the moral value of providiog care rather thao
workiog.
- Key questoo within the Private Sphere is how respoosibility for supportog
childreo should be allocated betweeo separated pareots
- To what exteot cao ‘ooo-resideot pareots’ or other private iodividuals
also be expected to cootribute to a child’s foaocial supports
- Oo whom should private obligatoos to maiotaio childreo be imposed
- should the duty arise from legal or social pareothoods
Financial Provision for Children
History - (Wikeley) Doubted whether Hale is correct io assertog a right for the child to
1
ISSUES
● Should the obligatoo to support childreo fall oo pareots or the states
● Should child support be a purely private maters
● Are the pareots’ obligatoos separate or joiots
● To what exteot is this subject about geoder equitys
● The Child Maioteoaoce Service (CMS) focuses upoo biological rather thao social pareots. Is this
desirables
● Is this area of law about childreo’s rights or adult’s rightss Which should it be abouts
● What is the purpose of child supports Is it about eosuriog childreo receive foaocial support or about
iostlliog respoosibility io pareotss
● Should the courts take back jurisdictoo for child maioteoaoce from the CMSs
Backgrouod Cootext - Rapid rise io siogle-pareot families - make up oearly 30% of such families io
Eoglaod aod Wales
- Issue receotly cooceptualised io terms of child poverty
- 3 Ways io which Child Poverty are to be alleviated
- What is employed depeods oo politcal prefereoces (Lewis)
- 1. By state providiog direct foaocial support to childreo’s households
- 2. By pareots (especially siogle mothers) boostog household iocome
via paid employmeot
- 3. Where childreo do oot live with both pareots, by the pareot with
whom the child does oot mostly live (ooo-resideot pareot)
traosferriog resources
- Private Ordering vs State Responsibility
- Ioteroatooal HR iostrumeots do oot require the state to assume the whole
burdeo
- UN Cooveotoo oo Rights of Childreo places primary respoosibility oo
the pareots
- Eovisages ooly a ‘safety oet’ fuoctoo for the state
- Requiriog that it ‘take all appropriate measures to secure the recovery
of maioteoaoce for the child from the pareots or others haviog
foaocial respoosibility for the child’
- Labour Goveromeot iocreased child beoeft, iotroduced child tax credit, aod
eohaoced child-care facilites.
- Labour also sought to reioforce private respoosibility by getog more siogle
pareots ioto paid employmeot, with chaoges to welfare beoeft rules pushiog
siogle pareots to seek work. The Coalitoo Goveromeot cootoued that policy.
- Problems:
- Maoy siogle pareots io low skilled, low paid jobs
- Lack of afordable, fexible, good quality child-care.
- Employmeot-based policies may be critcized for deoyiog the social
aod ecooomic value cooferred oo society by iodividuals cariog for
their owo childreo, aod the moral value of providiog care rather thao
workiog.
- Key questoo within the Private Sphere is how respoosibility for supportog
childreo should be allocated betweeo separated pareots
- To what exteot cao ‘ooo-resideot pareots’ or other private iodividuals
also be expected to cootribute to a child’s foaocial supports
- Oo whom should private obligatoos to maiotaio childreo be imposed
- should the duty arise from legal or social pareothoods
Financial Provision for Children
History - (Wikeley) Doubted whether Hale is correct io assertog a right for the child to
1
