British officials want to use tax records to keep parents from cheating on their child support payments.
New legislation to be proposed this week is aimed at catching relatively wealthy fathers and mothers who may try to hide their actual earnings to avoid paying enough maintenance, the Sunday Times of London reported.
John Hutton, the work and pensions secretary, plans to change "radically" the way the agency is organized, with much "firmer action" being taken against absent parents, the newspaper said.
Data held by the Inland Revenue and information stored by credit reference agencies would enable the Child Support Agency to find out the real wealth of absent parents and target them more effectively. The agency will be expected to use the data to develop "risk profiles" of the most likely defaulters.
Those who have a bad record of paying will have their credit ratings marked to show they are defaulters, the newspaper said.
© Copyright 2006 by United Press International
