Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 19
Sixth Report - Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service
Published 27 Apr 2023
Paragraph 85
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We have heard that the current child maintenance system incentivises parental conflict under a “winner takes all system” and there appear to be strong arguments in favour of reform away from such a system. However, reform towards an alternative model, such as an income share model, would require careful consideration and preparation. Once the urgent work on maintenance affordability is finished, the Department should consider a model which incorporates both parents’ income. We suggest that the key criteria the Government use to evaluate any such proposal should include the potential effect on compliance, the scope for any proposals to tackle incentives to parental conflict and potential impact on child poverty. In its response to this Report, the Government should set out when such work will begin.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Sixth Report - Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service (HC 272), paragraph 85, 27 April 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 6 July 2023.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and responds to each recommendation, agreeing with some aims and disagreeing with or declining others.
- It agrees that effective enforcement should be a key priority, and says that if the Child Support (Enforcement) Bill receives royal assent, a simpler administrative liability order will "substantially speed up" moves to stronger enforcement.
- It disagrees that the Financial Investigation Unit referral system is not functioning as it should, and does not agree that splitting Child Benefit between parents with shared care would be appropriate.
- On Universal Credit, it says "there are no estimated timescales currently" for partial deductions for child maintenance, and "no plans currently" to alter the order of deductions.
- It intends a "fundamental review" of the child maintenance calculation, including whether to include both parental incomes, and says it will consider moving rates into secondary legislation. Any changes would be explored "at the earliest opportunity" if the review indicates they are necessary.