:00:29. > :00:33.Ten minute rule motion. I beg to move that these be given to bring in
:00:34. > :00:37.a Bill to equalise the assessment and enforcement of child maintenance
:00:38. > :00:41.arrangements of children of self-employed parents with that of
:00:42. > :00:45.other employed parents. I do welcome the great interest of an attendance
:00:46. > :00:50.of Honourable members for my Bill, but feel like something of a filler
:00:51. > :00:54.in the Prime Minister's San Mitch. The Honourable members attention
:00:55. > :00:59.will be focused on the next motion rather than my Bill, however many
:01:00. > :01:02.parents have waited all too long for a fairer child maintenance for their
:01:03. > :01:06.children and will not let a general election get in the way of their
:01:07. > :01:11.campaign. The campaign message at the heart of my Bill, to use the
:01:12. > :01:15.Prime Minister pot pardons, is that we needed help maintenance service
:01:16. > :01:22.that will work for everyone, not just a privileged few. This issue.
:01:23. > :01:28.The. Stop the clock, please. I appreciate the interest and other
:01:29. > :01:32.matters, but the subject matter of this Bill is of very great
:01:33. > :01:36.importance to huge numbers of parents and children around the
:01:37. > :01:40.country and I think it is, to put it mildly, unseemly that while the
:01:41. > :01:44.honourable gentleman is speaking about his Bill, there are a number
:01:45. > :01:49.of animated private conversations taking place, including those being
:01:50. > :01:52.conducted by normally immensely courteous members of the house. If
:01:53. > :01:54.the house could settle down and listen to the eloquence of the
:01:55. > :02:00.honourable gentleman, we would all be grateful. Of great and broadens
:02:01. > :02:07.and interests of the public. It is also a great cross-party one. From
:02:08. > :02:10.the time of the Thatcher Government, recognising the principle that all
:02:11. > :02:20.Prince Harry continued responsibility to reasonably
:02:21. > :02:24.contributed children's upkeep. Parents in need of child maintenance
:02:25. > :02:28.who have nowhere else to turn. It must cater for all children,
:02:29. > :02:32.including those whose parents are self-employed with complex financial
:02:33. > :02:39.affairs. My interest in this issue has arisen from my constituent
:02:40. > :02:48.Elizabeth who is in attendance today. As well as four other equally
:02:49. > :02:52.brave women, super mums, and there will be other like-minded women who
:02:53. > :02:59.have come to surgeries. Elizabeth, Melissa, JoAnn, Sue and Kate have
:03:00. > :03:11.religiously pursued the cases and could read the text but on how
:03:12. > :03:16.parents good... They're been removed in replacement to the MS processors.
:03:17. > :03:19.It is useful to have read me to introduce this Bill and my
:03:20. > :03:24.honourable friend with the Work and Pensions select committee that an
:03:25. > :03:28.enquiry into the CMS which is due to report imminently. If you are a
:03:29. > :03:32.child whose nonresident parent is up and Plaid Cymru your risk of being
:03:33. > :03:37.financially disadvantaged convert HL twos nonresident parent is employed.
:03:38. > :03:42.Nonresidents other employed parents are being indulged by the CMS. The
:03:43. > :03:46.Government 's defence to discharge of injustice is that closing the
:03:47. > :03:48.loopholes which enables such child maintenance avoidance is, I quote,
:03:49. > :03:55.expensive and time component to do so. -- time-consuming. The
:03:56. > :04:01.Government does not take such a relaxed attitude to those who avoid
:04:02. > :04:06.paying benefits taxes. An annual budget of ?4 billion, this money
:04:07. > :04:11.feels to get a grip of nonresident parents who hide their income from
:04:12. > :04:16.the CMS by exploiting legal loopholes. It is welcome that the
:04:17. > :04:18.DWP has beefed up its financial investigations unit to a 50 strong
:04:19. > :04:23.team and good that the Minister for world for a delivery who is here
:04:24. > :04:26.today to listen said to be working pensions select committee that the
:04:27. > :04:33.apparatus of the bank accounts and tax records and seek to clarify
:04:34. > :04:36.where things are at not adding up. -- have powers to look at bank
:04:37. > :04:40.accounts. Children should not be paying the price of the ongoing
:04:41. > :04:45.injustice of unpaid child maintenance. Fewer than half of
:04:46. > :04:52.eligible children do not receive anything at all. Elizabeth's Sun is
:04:53. > :04:59.one of those whose should not be paying for the ?40,000 price of what
:05:00. > :05:04.he is owed over six years in jail maintenance. Simply because his
:05:05. > :05:07.father has a clever accountant who can help hide his African non-in
:05:08. > :05:15.comparing accounts businesses and property. This maintenance liability
:05:16. > :05:18.would not have been uncovered without the determination of his
:05:19. > :05:23.mother taking the case through to tribunal hearings and relying on the
:05:24. > :05:26.old rule which would allow for assets to be looked at. They
:05:27. > :05:32.eventually revealed that the other parent is assets valuing the lot
:05:33. > :05:35.from the sale of businesses and inheritance and found that he could
:05:36. > :05:40.regularly pacey as a maintenance to support their teenage son. The
:05:41. > :05:47.problem may build six resolvers that under the 2012 CMS scheme, the same
:05:48. > :05:51.parent is held to have a nil child maintenance and is liability. It was
:05:52. > :05:56.then at 40,000, it would now be nil. Being based largely on gross taxable
:05:57. > :06:00.income figures are provided by the HMI C. This model, I accept, works
:06:01. > :06:06.with the majority of straightforward cases were a paying parent pot
:06:07. > :06:11.school income is to play by claimant. It works as well with the
:06:12. > :06:19.paying parent takes more in other forms. It is not what at all when
:06:20. > :06:26.the income does not show up at HMR IC. There are some nonresident
:06:27. > :06:33.parents who support their lifestyle from income not from income at all.
:06:34. > :06:35.For example from substantial assets from capital gains, property
:06:36. > :06:41.transactions. Such paying parents have no child maintenance liability
:06:42. > :06:44.at all. Parents are now left to a limited child maintenance support
:06:45. > :06:49.system which may be cheaper and more efficient for a simple cases, but
:06:50. > :06:54.for more complex cases this speak and weeks to injustice. This
:06:55. > :06:56.injustice is compounded by the 2012 rules not only abolishing the
:06:57. > :07:03.grounds to change assessments, but also cutting of the avenue for
:07:04. > :07:07.redress through the courts. The Government's response was that the
:07:08. > :07:09.assets ground for a variation proved difficult to administer and
:07:10. > :07:14.difficult for our clients understand. What has proved
:07:15. > :07:18.difficult for my constituent Elizabeth is to obtain justice for
:07:19. > :07:22.the maintenance for her son and what is difficult for Elizabeth
:07:23. > :07:24.understand is why the state has chosen to prioritise its own
:07:25. > :07:31.administrative convenience of the interest of her child. The enquiry
:07:32. > :07:34.into this issue has heard evidence from parents and other nonresident
:07:35. > :07:42.parents with a lifestyle that does not matter to quote income. The CMS
:07:43. > :07:46.advisers will go off to the HMR IC and they will be left in limbo
:07:47. > :07:49.because nonresident parents are not committing tax fraud, but are
:07:50. > :07:57.avoiding child maintenance because they can hide behind their self
:07:58. > :08:04.implied status. The organiser finances in a tax avoidance manner.
:08:05. > :08:08.One mother told a website how it CMS advised her to accept a ?100 payment
:08:09. > :08:12.from her ex-husband had yourself implied it was the best he could
:08:13. > :08:15.hope for, regardless of evidence that he was capable of paying more,
:08:16. > :08:18.hadith is therefore business, multiple properties and more
:08:19. > :08:24.physical assets than you could imagine. Gingerbread's Chief
:08:25. > :08:27.Executive said Britain was my child maintenance system is concluded that
:08:28. > :08:31.into a culture where to meet parents think it is optional rather than
:08:32. > :08:37.obligatory to play there to help's maintenance. It cannot be right that
:08:38. > :08:42.someone can avoid paying child maintenance because his relevant tax
:08:43. > :08:48.year removed is liability. Why did it remit is liability? Because in
:08:49. > :08:52.that year he bought a truck. The CMS should not allow the financial
:08:53. > :08:56.interests of a truck to come before a child. The state should not be an
:08:57. > :09:00.accessory to child maintenance avoidance. The Government has its
:09:01. > :09:05.eye on the self-employed to make the tax system work for everyone and
:09:06. > :09:09.issued include the child maintenance system as well. My Bill will reform
:09:10. > :09:14.the CMS to correct its current failures and cater for children,
:09:15. > :09:19.company directors and those with private financial affairs. A
:09:20. > :09:22.notional income could be assumed were a paying parent pot Webster was
:09:23. > :09:27.inconsistent with income and that should be made available within the
:09:28. > :09:32.CMS scheme. The new variation ground should be made available whereby a
:09:33. > :09:35.fair rate of insight should be assumed from an asset where it is
:09:36. > :09:40.capable of producing a reasonable level of return were a paying parent
:09:41. > :09:43.has chosen to recall such an income without good reason, bearing in mind
:09:44. > :09:47.there are maintenance responsibilities for the children.
:09:48. > :09:52.The Bill were also grab the court jurisdiction with the nonresident
:09:53. > :09:55.parent has the assets and the CMS is unable or incapable of determining
:09:56. > :10:01.the child maintenance support. Whilst my Bill comes at the very end
:10:02. > :10:09.of this Parliament, it may just help prompt the spring report setting out
:10:10. > :10:15.the 30 month review into CMS. Back in 2012, a Lloyd said we will make
:10:16. > :10:21.clear our intent is including a specific review. No doubt that will
:10:22. > :10:26.include the impact on families of the ?20 fee which my Bill will seek
:10:27. > :10:29.to exempt. The campaign of single families has that the child
:10:30. > :10:32.maintenance can lift a fifth appearance on low incomes out of
:10:33. > :10:35.poverty. The lack of child maintenance should be another
:10:36. > :10:43.burning injustice for the Government to tackle. Given this Bill is
:10:44. > :10:50.probably the least likely ever to become law in this parliamentary
:10:51. > :10:54.session, there is every point in highlighting on behalf of
:10:55. > :10:59.constituents and important for their children the unfairness of it. This
:11:00. > :11:04.may be an early bid for the manifesto, it may also be an early
:11:05. > :11:08.public bid to be included in the next Queen 's speech, either way I
:11:09. > :11:13.look forward to delivering social justice with improved hell-bent on a
:11:14. > :11:18.system for all. -- tailed maintenance. As many as are of the
:11:19. > :11:23.opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, "no". I think the Ayes have it. Who
:11:24. > :12:19.will prepare and bring in the Bill? Child maintenance assessment of
:12:20. > :12:30.parent pot income Bill. Second reading what today? The 12th of May
:12:31. > :12:35.I suppose. I shall delete the last two words uttered. 12th of May.