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Select Committee · Work and Pensions Committee

Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service

Status: Closed Opened: 18 May 2022 Closed: 31 Oct 2023 16 recommendations 15 conclusions 1 report

Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service is the third and final part of the Committee’s wider inquiry into children in poverty, following on from the Measurement and targets , and no recourse to public funds . The Committee looked into: How many children in the UK live in separated families? What proportion of these children … Show more

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Sixth Report - Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Servi… HC 272 27 Apr 2023 31 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

1 item
16 Recommendation Sixth Report - Children in poverty: Chi… Accepted in Part

Urge Government to analyse maintenance affordability and propose urgent changes within six months.

The unaffordability of maintenance for some parents is causing severe hardship and distress. It also forms a barrier to compliance. Updating maintenance levels and thresholds should therefore be seen as a priority. We recommend the Government completes its analysis of the affordability of maintenance payments and make proposals as an … Read more

Government response AI summary
The government accepts the need to update the child maintenance calculation due to affordability concerns and has begun a fundamental review and updated research, but does not commit to completing this analysis or making proposals within the recommended urgent six-month timeframe.
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Department for Work and Pensions

Oral evidence sessions

4 sessions
Date Witnesses
18 Jan 2023 Arlene Sugden · Department for Work and Pensions, Hilda Massey · Department for Work and Pensions, Viscount Younger of Leckie · Department for Work and Pensions View ↗
2 Nov 2022 Joshua Reddaway · National Audit Office View ↗
19 Oct 2022 Dr Christine Davies · Royal Holloway University of London, Dr Jon Symonds · University of Bristol, Dr Mia Hakovirta · Turku University, Finland, Professor Esther Dermott · University of Bristol View ↗
7 Sep 2022 Caitlin Logan · One Parent Families Scotland, Cristina Odone · Centre for Social Justice, Meghan Meek-O’Connor · Save the Children, Michael Lewkowicz · Families Need Fathers, Victoria Benson · Gingerbread View ↗

Who gave evidence

13 witnesses
WitnessOrganisationSessions
Arlene Sugden · Director Child Maintenance Service Department for Work and Pensions 1
Caitlin Logan · Policy, Research and Influencing Lead One Parent Families Scotland 1
Cristina Odone · Head of Family Centre for Social Justice 1
Dr Christine Davies · Honorary Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Royal Holloway University of London 1
Dr Jon Symonds · Senior Lecturer in Social Work with Children and … University of Bristol 1
Dr Mia Hakovirta · Department of Social Research Turku University, Finland 1
Hilda Massey · Director Child Maintenance and Devolution Policy Department for Work and Pensions 1
Joshua Reddaway · Director National Audit Office 1
Meghan Meek-O’Connor · Senior Policy Advisor Save the Children 1
Michael Lewkowicz · Director of Communications & Business Manager Families Need Fathers 1
Professor Esther Dermott · Professor of Sociology and Social Policy University of Bristol 1
Victoria Benson · CEO Gingerbread 1
Viscount Younger of Leckie · Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Department for Work and Pensions 1

Correspondence

4 letters
DateDirectionTitle
6 Sep 2023 — Correspondence with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State relating to Chil…
13 Jul 2023 — Correspondence with Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State relating to Children…
23 Feb 2023 — Correspondence with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State relating to Chil…
1 Feb 2023 — Correspondence with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State about the Childr…