Family Law Aberdeen Latest News

Recent legislative developments in Australia are expected to make significant changes to the way that family law decisions are made.

Almost two-thirds of local authorities in Scotland have had to split up siblings who are in care over the past year owing to the shortage of foster families, new research from the Fostering Network has shown.

The National Audit Office has reported that the Auditor General has once again been unable to give a full sign off to the Client Funds Account of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission because of the level of error in maintenance assessments.

A child comes into care and needs a foster family every six hours across Scotland, the Fostering Network has revealed.

Children's charity, CHILDREN 1ST, has recently carried out research into the support kinship carers receive across different local authorities. The study revealed that the level of financial help available to carers varies considerably, depending on where they live.

Following a public consultation last year, an order has been laid in Parliament to bring the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission back under direct Ministerial control as a business unit of the Department for Work and Pensions.

The Fostering Network is calling on the Government to launch a public awareness campaign in Northern Ireland to ensure kinship carers get the essential advice and support they need.

The Fostering Network has issued a warning to the Scottish Government that foster children in Scotland are being let down by a lack of proper financial support.

A recent report has claimed that non-resident fathers on benefits should be put under greater pressure to meet their financial responsibilities with regards to their children.

Gingerbread, the single parent charity, has commented on the publication of the National Audit Office (NAO) report into the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.

A new report by children's charity, Action for Children, has found that over half (51%) of social workers, and a third of police officers (36%) feel 'powerless' to intervene in suspected cases of child neglect.

Plans to charge single parents to use the future CSA, including up to 12% of any maintenance collected by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission are set to be challenged by a senior Conservative Peer on the final day of the Welfare Reform Bill’s Report Stage.

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission has published findings from a 2010 survey of 2,009 separated parents using the Child Maintenance Options telephone service. The survey’s primary aim was to determine the number of children benefiting from a family-based child maintenance arrangement, following contact with the Child Maintenance Options telephone service, between July 2008 and the end of March 2010.

The Government has recently unveiled its proposals for the new child maintenance scheme. Work and Pensions Minister Maria Miller said the Government wants to increase child maintenance payments for some of the worst-off single parent families.

A seriously overweight young boy from Ohio has been removed from his family following concerns that his weight was putting his health at risk, reports Fox11online.com.

A record-breaking single payment of £108,000 has been forcibly deducted from a father's bank account. The man had failed to pay any maintenance for his daughter for more than 16 years, refusing to respond to letters and calls from the Child Support Agency.

The Fostering Network is advising the Government against an overwhelming focus on adoption as the way to solve the problems facing the care system, and is cautioning against the use of league tables and targets.

A recent report from the Institute for American Values has offered concrete recommendations aimed at policy makers for modest ways to reduce unnecessary divorce.

New research has shown that the government could make huge progress in addressing the growing issue of child poverty in the UK by improving the collection of child maintenance.

A recent survey has found that the weak U.S. economy is creating difficulties for couples seeking a divorce, and parents trying to abide by child custody arrangements.