Child support in lone-parent families: policies in Australia and the UK

Under the provisions of the Child Support Bill of 1991, a new system of child maintenance is currently being implemented in Britain in order to increase the coverage and level of private support for children whose parents have separated or divorced. When the scheme was introduced, the government indicated that the recent Australian system of child support had been one model for this initiative. This paper compares the main features of the Australian and UK systems and reviews the early evidence concerning the effectiveness of the Australian arrangements. The paper notes that there are significant differences between the design of the schemes and argues that the UK system may only have a very limited impact on the poverty experienced by lone parents and their children. -Authors