To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the policy of the Child Support Agency on demanding maintenance payments from former husbands regardless of whether a former wife has asked for such payments or whether a court has imposed a maintenance order, in cases where the former wife is claiming income support.

From April 1993 the Child Support Agency will take over from the courts the main responsibility for obtaining maintenance for children. It will provide a service for use by all families for whom child maintenance is an issue whether they are on benefit or not. Where the parent with care of a child claims income support, family credit or disability living allowance, provisions in the Child Support Act 1991 mean that she will be expected to authorise the Child Support Agency to take maintenance action for her child. The agency will not act without such authorisation. Experience shows that most parents wish to co-operate in arranging financial support for the benefit of their children. It is very much in the child's interest that both parents should do what they can to support their child.