The first concrete steps in implementing the reforms have already been taken. For example, in the pre-Budget report, we announced the increases to the child maintenance disregard to £20 a week by the end of next year, and to £40 a week from April 2010. That change alone will lift 50,000 children out of poverty.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that answer. When we move to the new system, there will undoubtedly be a mass of cases under the first two systems in which there are still unpaid arrears. Will he consider whether mediation might have a part to play in resolving long-standing disputes about how much should be paid each week or month, and if alternative dispute resolution proves successful in that regard, will he consider a role for it in the new system?
We are taking an important step in the direction that my hon. Friend seeks, in that CMEC will come with an information and support service which will, for the first time, give advice and support to separating couples about how they should proceed and what arrangements they might make on a voluntary basis for securing the future flow of maintenance. He will also know that since January 2006 the family mediation helpline has been in existence, and I expect that the new advice and support service will be able to signpost the mediation service and refer people to it.
Although I realise that the CSA has a difficult task, what does the Minister propose to do about calculations of the income of absent fathers that take so long that by the time the arrears are due the father gets a shock and is unable to pay them all in one go? That is a real problem, as I am sure other hon. Members have heard; those people are faced by payments that they cannot meet.
Of course, improving performance as the hon. Lady describes is not just a case of waiting for the new commission to come into existence; it is important to improve performance now, for exactly the reasons she indicates. That is why we are making additional investment through the operational improvement plan, and the secret of that is to speed up the processing of cases, so that whereas back in March 2005, before the plan was under way, only 30 per cent. of cases were processed within 12 weeks, the number is now 74 per cent. The significant investment we are already making in the existing agency is already improving performance and that will carry forward under the new arrangements.