So the government is going to change the formula for child support cases making the amount of support payable a percentage of the absent parent's net income, rising in proportion to the number of children.

The present formula is too complicated and means there are gross delays while staff rack their brains over how to add it all up.

What a surprise.'The greatest failure of public administration in the present century.' That is how the Child Support Agency (CSA) was described by Dr SM Cretney, a leading family law academic.

Could it be that he was right? And why has no-one the courage to abolish the whole monstrosity now and put the families who suffer at its hands out of their misery.-- The present law: When can the court make a child maintenance order? Put another way, when does the Child Support Act 1991 s 8 apply and when is it excluded? The Act only applies when there is a 'qualifying child', a parent with care and an absent parent (see ss 3 and 4).

It does not apply to a stepchild, a child older than 18 or where any of the three live outside the UK.

Otherwise, it applies to all children and the jurisdiction of the court is generally excluded by s 8.-- Carer on benefit: There is a distinction between s 4 cases (where the parent with care is not in receipt of benefit) and s 6 cases (where that parent is on benefit).

If on benefit, the secretary of state may require the parent to apply for an assessment and the restrictions discussed later do not apply.-- Magic date: The Act does not apply where an application for periodical payments for a child was made before 5 April 1993.

Such an application may have been made in the prayer in a petition or an answer and so there can be exclusion of the Act without a formal application having been issued.-- Powers of the court: If the Act does not apply in principle the court may still make a consent order, provided it is in exactly the same terms as a written agreement (s 8(5)).

It is not unusual for solicitors to include maintenance provision for children in a consent order without an explanation and then, when enquiry is made as to the court's jurisdiction, to reply in exasperated tones that it is by agreement.

Of course it is, but the court needs to see an agreement to satisfy itself that it exists and that the proposed order is in identical terms.Would it be too much to ask for a recital in the order to the effect that 'para X is made pursuant to the written agreement dated, etc' and then to lodge a copy of the agreement with the application.

Then it is frequently said that the notice of application, endorsed with the consent of the parties, is the written agreement.

There is no doubt that some district judges accept this (whether from conviction, weariness or lack of interest) but it is a totally specious argument and certainly not wha t the draughtsman had in mindWhen the CSA slumbers: Imagine the parent with care (normally the mother) is left without any support for children and the CSA is clearly not going to deal with the matter for a long time.

The court has no jurisdiction to make an order for the children as such: s 8 prevents that.However, there is no reason why the court should not make an order for the mother as maintenance pending suit or interim periodical payments to take account of the costs of supporting the children.

Under s 25(2)(b) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 the court must take account of her obligations and responsibilities and these must include the children.What it is clear that this is the real purpose of the order, it should contain some formula for the provision to be reduced on a pound for pound basis by any child support assessment or even for the order to be discharged on the making of such an assessment.-- Transitional arrangements: What were once called the 'transitional arrangements' are just about as transitional as the 'special procedure' is special.Put simply, the CSA cannot cope with the workload and there are various classes of applications to the CSA that cannot be made.The position may be summarised as follows:1.

An application may not be made under s 4 where there is either in force a written agreement made before 5 April 1993 or a court order (of any date), or the parent with care is on benefit (s 4(10));2.

An application may be made under s 6 at any time.

Whether it is made will depend on the secretary of state;3.

A person prevented from making an application for an assessment may apply to the court for variation of the court order of the maintenance agreement but this will not be possible if either an application for an assessment under s 6 has been made or such an application is pending (s 8(3A)).