Recommendation 11

HM Government Acknowledged

This Government takes the issue of domestic abuse extremely seriously and works hard to ensure victims of domestic abuse can use its services. This includes ensuring the CMS is equipped to help parents set up and manage their child maintenance arrangement safely. The CMS recognises that domestic abuse can take many forms including physical, emotional or financial abuse, violent or threatening behaviour and coercive control and has a number of procedures in place to ensure domestic abuse cases are handled appropriately. For parents using the Direct Pay service, the CMS can act as intermediary to facilitate the exchange of bank details to help ensure there is no unwanted contact between parents and can provide information on how to set up bank accounts with a centralised sort code which reduces the risk of a parent’s location being traced. The application fee is also waived for victims of domestic abuse, and CMS caseworkers will signpost where needed to suitable domestic abuse organisations. In 2021, the department commissioned an independent review of the ways in which the CMS supports victims of domestic abuse. We are grateful to Dr Samantha Callan for conducting the review and were pleased to publish the review and the Government response to the recommendations earlier this year. The department has welcomed the chance to learn lessons and take whatever practical steps it can to help separated parents who have experienced abuse to set up safe maintenance arrangements. We have accepted eight of the ten recommendations and are strongly committed to progressing these. Recommendation 1 has already been taken forward through the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Bill. The Bill will allow victims of domestic abuse to use the Collect & Pay service on the grounds of domestic abuse and where there is evidence of domestic abuse against them or children in their household by the other parent in the case. The evidence requirements for domestic abuse may be complex and are likely to change over time, so the types of domestic abuse evidence which will be required will be out in secondary legislation. To develop the secondary legislation, we will be engaging with stakeholder groups, as well as other Government Departments to ensure parents are suitably supported. This will ensure appropriate processes are established for verifying evidence requirements for domestic abuse. We plan to bring the legislation forward as soon as possible, however, this is dependent upon developing robust measures in addition to parliamentary time. This also applies to the removal of the domestic abuse reporting requirements for the application fee waiver which requires changes to secondary legislation. The DWP is also progressing the recommendations which relate to CMS domestic abuse guidance and training. Since the independent review was undertaken, the CMS has implemented mandatory training for CMS staff in how to respond to domestic abuse and has a Complex Needs Toolkit which includes clear steps to follow to support customers who are experiencing abuse. However, in light of Dr Callan’s recommendations, the DWP has committed to looking at this again. So far, the DWP has reviewed the Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance to ensure CMS training is up to date and in line with best practice. We are also currently reviewing the Home Office’s new statutory guidance on controlling and coercive behaviour, which was published in April earlier this year, to determine the impact on CMS procedures and to ensure its principles are incorporated into our training materials. Work is also ongoing in relation to the Complex Needs Toolkit and Domestic Abuse 6 Point Plan. All domestic abuse training materials are currently being reviewed across DWP to ensure the department has a joined-up approach for domestic abuse guidance. The review also recommended single named caseworkers for victims of domestic abuse to ensure they are supported appropriately when using the CMS. This is currently being trialled through a single-named caseworker team across two sites in Newcastle and Birkenhead. The results so far have suggested that victims of domestic abuse who have been allocated to these teams are not repeating their story, which was a key feature of the recommendation. We will continue to monitor this and retest the criteria to ensure parents are being targeted appropriately.