We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to remove the child support liability in the new 'child maintenance and other payments bill' for 'non-resident parents' where equal shared care arrangements exist.
I initially hesitated to sign the petition as I did not think that it was necessarily fair that the 'wealthier' parent should have no child support liability just because there is an equal shared care arrangement. The details in the petition do suggest that parents be forced to enter into a private arrangement, but this would require them to agree a child support figure, which obviously they may be unable to do. Perhaps there should be a formula that takes into account the incomes of both parents and the time the children spend with each parent? However, I realise that it would be too much to ask the government to include such a reform in the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill 2006-07, so for now I think we should settle with the terms of the petition, which I recommend readers to sign.
Signed. Of course, though this injustice is clearest when parenting is equal, it is also there at every point on the continuum from 50/50 parenting to 0/100. I recently had a reply to this issue from the Minister. The gist of it seemed to be, 'while you may imagine such a situation to represent equal parenting, in reality it does not, and you are therefore mistaken to think that money should not still pass from one parent to the other. We know best.'
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