ABSTRACT
The current UK child maintenance system was introduced by the Child Support Act, 1991 and put into operation in 1993 through the Child Support Agency (CSA), an executive agency of the Department of Social Security. Previously, the child maintenance system operated through the courts and the offices of the Department of Social Security, and decisions about parents' entitlements to and liabilities for child maintenance had been based largely on discretion. Levels of non-payment were high. In 1989, only 30 per cent of lone mothers were receiving regular payments of child support (Bradshaw and Millar, 1991) and child maintenance formed less than ten per cent of lone parents' total net income, compared with 45 per cent contributed by income support (social assistance) and 22 per cent from net earnings.
