Recommendation 1

HM Government Accepted

We know the vast majority of paying parents want to do the right thing and support their children, but the Government shares the Committee’s view that effective enforcement should be a key priority for those few paying parents who willingly refuse to meet their obligations to support their children. The DWP (DWP) has already made substantial improvements to the CMS enforcement process to make it faster and more effective and has plans to go further. In the year to December 2022, the Child Maintenance Service collected £13.8 million from paying parents with a civil enforcement action in process. The CMS has worked closely to improve court processing times by introducing virtual court presenting and electronic exchange of documentation. We are continuing with this programme of improvement, aiming to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of our enforcement system, deciding what is appropriate on a case-by-case basis, and using powers that have the greatest chance of ensuring people meet their obligations and securing money for children. Our more serious enforcement measures are only used once every other method of recovering child maintenance has been tried. These powers are designed to act as a deterrent and encourage parents to pay their liability before getting to court. As the Committee has acknowledged, changes are being brought forward through the Child Support (Enforcement) Private Members Bill (PMB) which will amend primary 4 Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service: Government Response legislation to remove the requirement for the CMS to obtain a court issued liability order (LO) and introduce a simpler administrative LO. Court issued LOs can currently take up to 20 weeks, so should the bill receive royal assent, the changes will substantially speed up the time in which the CMS can move to its stronger enforcement measures and get money to children more quickly.