Following a legal action by Liberty, the Child Support Commissioners has ruled that it is unlawful to treat a parent who is living with a partner of the same sex differently from one in a heterosexual relationship.

Liberty’s client, who is currently in a lesbian relationship, was being discriminated against when it came to the calculation of how much child support she should pay. Had she been in a conventional heterosexual relationship the whole of their joint housing costs would have been taken into account when assessing the amount of child support to be paid, But because her partner is a lesbian it had been ruled that her joint housing costs be apportioned with her partner meaning that she had to pay more.

This is clearly discriminatory and, working with the Stockton and District Advice and Information Service, Liberty has now won a ruling from both a Child Support Tribunal and the Child Support Commissioners that treating her differently is in breach of the Human Rights Act (article 14 taken with article 8)