CHILD SUPPORT

That this House recognises that the United States has successfully reformed its Child Support Enforcement programme, resulting in the doubling of collections, a thirty percentage point increase in the number of families in the programme receiving child maintenance, and a fifty per cent. increase in paternity establishment; notes that the main elements of these reforms included the direct withholding of earnings and income tax refunds, claims against personal property, the reporting of unpaid child support automatically to credit rating agencies, the suspension of driving licences and the seizure of passports and financial assets; and calls upon the Government to bear this success and these reforms in mind when bringing legislation forward.