CSA debtors may face county court

Self-employed parents who refuse to pay Child Support Agency maintenance awards risk having their debt registered with a county court from today. Registering of the debts will hit their credit worthiness, affecting their ability to borrow over a wide range of products from mortgages to credit cards to bank lending.

Ann Chant, the agency's chief executive, said: "I welcome this new legislation as a further weapon against the minority of self-employed absent parents who will go to great lengths to avoid paying for their children's upkeep." Their failure to pay "will become a matterof public record, to be taken into account like other debts when credit worthiness is being considered."