So the body that will replace the Child Support Agency is to be called the "Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission". I wonder whether in a few years time that will be a name that is held in any higher esteem than "Child Support Agency". Gone is the term 'child support', and we return to the old term (still used by the courts): 'child maintenance'. I also note the emphasis on 'enforcement', more of which in a moment.

Much of the rest of today's announcement by Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton is not news, having been mentioned/hinted at/leaked already. However, there are some interesting points:

• Importantly, the CSA's 3.5 billion pounds of debt will not be written off - good news for those thousands of parents waiting for payment, although how much of this will ever be seen is another matter.
  
• The proposals include a plan to make it compulsory to have the father's name recorded on the birth certificate 'to help future enforcement', although I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work.
  
• Extra enforcement powers "will include the imposition of new curfews and the surrendering of passports, piloting mandatory withholding of wages as the first means of collecting maintenance and exploring [with?] the financial services sector new powers to collect maintenance from accounts held by financial institutions". So, we may have attachment of earnings without any failure to pay, and garnishee "orders".
  
• Removal of the requirement to apply to the courts for a liability order before taking enforcement action. It makes me nervous that the Commission will be free to take enforcement action without the independent 'check' of the court.
  
• Powers to recover debt from estates of the deceased. I was going to make a joke about not being able to rest in peace, but then I remembered that some parents have been driven to suicide by how much they have been required to pay.


• Lastly, the CMEC will charge the non resident parent for it's services. I'm sure this will go down well with NRPs.

Hands up if any of you are confident that these proposals will dramatically improve the assessment and collection of child maintenance. No, I thought not. Still, I suppose the CMEC can't do any worse than the CSA, or at least I hope it can't.