Recommendations & Conclusions
36 items
2
Recommendation
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Rejected
The Department has displayed insufficient curiosity around the needs of some of the most vulnerable separated families and their children. Take-up of the Department’s CMS scheme is substantially lower than it expected. An estimated 18% of separated families used the CMS scheme in 2019–20, compared to an expected 33%. As …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation, says it has improved diversity information collection, undertakes surveys in multiple languages, and sees no need for new research given the increase in demand for CMS.
HM Treasury
3
Recommendation
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Accepted
The Department’s system of child maintenance is not designed to protect those subject to domestic abuse or coercive control. The Department designed the current child maintenance system to emphasise collaboration between parents, with the CMS available as a voluntary safety net that separated parents can choose to use if they …
Government response. The department has robust processes and training in place for identifying victims of domestic abuse. They will also assess the forthcoming Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance and adapt their Transformation Programme to incorporate further support and communications with domestic abuse survivors, …
HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Rejected
The Department has not taken responsibility for detecting child maintenance fraud, instead shifting this responsibility onto its customers. The Department asserts that it does not treat tackling child maintenance fraud, where children often suffer as the end user, with any less enthusiasm than it does tackling fraud against the taxpayer. …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation to take responsibility for detecting child maintenance fraud, stating it already has proportionate and cost-effective controls and a fraud strategy in place.
HM Treasury
5
Recommendation
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Rejected
The Department is too willing to blame low levels of customer satisfaction on CMS customers being difficult to please, despite its own systemic customer service failings. It is disheartening that customer satisfaction is no better now than it was under the failed CSA and that less than half (46%) of …
Government response. The government disagrees, stating that the Customer Experience Directorate actively invests in reviewing cases upheld by the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) to identify and implement service improvements, and will continue to utilize existing ICE publications to inform lessons learned.
HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Accepted
The Department is too slow to take effective enforcement action, leaving children without maintenance for too long and allowing child maintenance arrears to grow. The Department designed its CMS scheme to encourage parents to use Direct Pay first, and the supporting legislation forces some receiving parents onto Direct Pay even …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation to conduct research to understand how customers progress through the collection and enforcement process and is already completing insight and analysis and utilising existing user research. It is reviewing its internal processes and current …
HM Treasury
7
Recommendation
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Deferred
The Department’s ability to collect child maintenance is limited by the affordability of payments and the system risks creating a poverty trap for some Paying Parents. More than two-thirds of Paying Parents on Collect & Pay and over a quarter of those on Direct Pay say the payments are not …
Government response. The department cannot set out its plans to review affordability of liabilities as this relies upon a policy decision, but the department is considering its plans and will update the Work and Pensions Committee in due course.
HM Treasury
8
Recommendation
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Rejected
The Department has repeatedly failed to achieve savings targets for the child maintenance scheme over the past decade and again risks overpromising on the benefits of its current transformation programme. The Department has reduced the cost to the taxpayer of administering child maintenance by £172 million from £494 million in …
Government response. The government disagrees, stating their Transformation Programme introduces changes to improve efficiency and automation. They report performance in Annual Reports and Accounts, and regularly review services and programmes to ensure value for money.
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Rejected
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Work & Pensions (the Department) about child maintenance in Great Britain.1 We also received and considered written evidence from individuals and organisations from within the sector.
Government response. The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation, stating that the Department for Work and Pensions (the department) has a clear interest in how child maintenance is integrated into wider government policy, and it intends to continue to discharge this working …
HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department also told us that some issues identified with the integration of child maintenance were the result of legislation. For example, the rates for calculating child maintenance are outlined in legislation and mean that some paying parents on Universal Credit may see that as their earnings increase the resulting …
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Take-up of the Department’s CMS scheme is substantially lower than it expected. The Department estimated that 18% of separated families used the CMS scheme in 2019– 20, compared to its expectation of 33% by 2019.14 In 2021, the Department found that 49% of non-resident parents and 35% of parents with …
Government response. 2a. PAC Recommendation: The Department should: • within one year, develop a clear action plan to assess, tackle and monitor the ‘take-up gap’ between the number of separated parents that would benefit from using its statutory CMS scheme (and other …
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department told us that it “absolutely” wanted parents who were not receiving maintenance because the other parent was not willing to pay to feel that they can come to the Child Maintenance Service and that it will support them. It explained that, since closing CSA cases at the end …
Government response. 2a. PAC Recommendation: The Department should: • within one year, develop a clear action plan to assess, tackle and monitor the ‘take-up gap’ between the number of separated parents that would benefit from using its statutory CMS scheme (and other …
HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department does not know whether all groups of parents find CMS equally accessible or whether CMS produces different outcomes for different groups. The Department’s research found that low-income families, those with disabilities, and those with higher levels of parental conflict, appear more likely to have no arrangement in place. …
Government response. 2b. PAC Recommendation: The Department should: • to support this, undertake more inclusive research to understand its customers and users of its service. It should ensure people who do not communicate in English are included in its research and establish …
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The NAO found that parents from some minority groups, such as Black, African, Caribbean or Black British parents, are less likely to use the CMS scheme. However, the Department has not conducted research into why this might be or whether there is any indirect racial discrimination.17 Race is a ‘protected …
Government response. 2b. PAC Recommendation: The Department should: • to support this, undertake more inclusive research to understand its customers and users of its service. It should ensure people who do not communicate in English are included in its research and establish …
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Customer satisfaction with the CMS is no better than under the old CSA schemes. The Department’s internal survey results show that in the quarter ending December 2019 (before the pandemic), the Department’s customer satisfaction rating was 60%. This is lower than it was when the 2012 scheme was first introduced …
Government response. 5a. PAC recommendation: The Department should use its digital transformation to develop performance indicators that enable it to fully understand why customer satisfaction is so low, and target improvement where data suggests there may be an underlying service issue, for …
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department’s Customer Charter (the Charter) covers four customer service areas: ‘ease of access’; ‘getting it right’; ‘keeping you informed’; and ‘right treatment’. The NAO found that it is difficult to assess the Department objectively against these areas because the Department has not identified a suite of performance measures, management …
Government response. 5a. PAC recommendation: The Department should use its digital transformation to develop performance indicators that enable it to fully understand why customer satisfaction is so low, and target improvement where data suggests there may be an underlying service issue, for …
HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department received 6,521 complaints about child maintenance (around six for every 1,000 customers) in the year to 30 September 2021. This was considerably down from pre-pandemic levels in line with a general fall in complaints to the Department during the pandemic. Of the 6512 complaints received, the Department upheld …
Government response. 5a. PAC recommendation: The Department should use its digital transformation to develop performance indicators that enable it to fully understand why customer satisfaction is so low, and target improvement where data suggests there may be an underlying service issue, for …
HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Despite child maintenance having the highest rate of complaints within the Department, the Department upholds a lower proportion of complaints relating to child 21 Qq 124–125; C&AG’s Report, paras 5, 1.14, 3.10 22 C&AG’s Report, para 3.11 and 3.12 23 Q 125 24 C&AG’s Report, Figure 18, para 3.18 25 …
Government response. 5b. PAC recommendation: The Department should also, within one year, review Child Maintenance cases where the Independent Case Examiner has upheld a complaint and report to us its analysis of the key themes and lessons to be learned from this, …
HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department designed the current child maintenance system to emphasise collaboration between parents, with the CMS available as a voluntary safety net for those separated parents to choose to use if they decide to.31 Written evidence from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner referred to the Department’s data suggesting “a strong prevalence …
Government response. 3. PAC recommendation: The Department should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, outline how it will identify cases which potentially involve domestic abuse or coercive control and adapt its services and communications in response. It should build into its …
HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Parents can use the child maintenance system to continue to abuse their former partners, for example by withholding payments or access to children. Written evidence from Gingerbread and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner set out that, for survivors of domestic abuse, the CMS may be the safest and only way to …
Government response. 3. PAC recommendation: The Department should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, outline how it will identify cases which potentially involve domestic abuse or coercive control and adapt its services and communications in response. It should build into its …
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
We asked the Department how it ensured that its approach to monitoring child maintenance cases was properly identifying and addressing cases of domestic abuse and coercive control, rather than waiting to be alerted through non-payment or through the receiving parent raising concerns, especially when they might not be in a …
Government response. 3. PAC recommendation: The Department should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, outline how it will identify cases which potentially involve domestic abuse or coercive control and adapt its services and communications in response. It should build into its …
HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department told us that it provided specific training for staff to identify domestic abuse and coercive control, and that it could put in place controls to avoid contact with the paying parent (such as non-geographic bank accounts). It explained that it also had a “six-point domestic abuse plan for …
Government response. 3. PAC recommendation: The Department should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, outline how it will identify cases which potentially involve domestic abuse or coercive control and adapt its services and communications in response. It should build into its …
HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department’s legislation for child maintenance is designed to encourage parents to use Direct Pay first, but around half of Direct Pay arrangements are either not sustained or not effective. The Department told us that it preferred parents using its CMS to have a Direct Pay arrangement as it believed …
HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
We asked the Department why it was taking so long to identify missed payments and transfer customers onto Collect & Pay.47 The Department informs parents that they should get in touch if their Direct Pay arrangement fails but some do not, for example because they are concerned about causing an …
HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department has improved its enforcement of maintenance on Collect & Pay arrangements, but many parents receive less than they are entitled to. Compliance rates on Collect & Pay have risen from under one-third (31%) of paying parents contributing more than 90% of ongoing maintenance due in the quarter ending …
Government response. 6. PAC recommendation: The Department should, within one year: • conduct operational and user research to better understand how customers progress through its collection and enforcement process, to identify any operational or legislative barriers to reducing the overall time to …
HM Treasury
25
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
There are several reasons why enforcing payments can take a long time. For example, the Department can be slow to start civil enforcement activity where other attempts at collection have failed. As at September 2021, only around one-third (34%) of paying parents on Collect & Pay with ongoing maintenance arrangements …
Government response. 6. PAC conclusion: The Department is too slow to take effective enforcement action, leaving children without maintenance for too long and allowing child maintenance arrears to grow. 6. PAC recommendation: The Department should, within one year: • conduct operational and …
HM Treasury
26
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
We asked the Department what use it was making of its enforcement powers.54 Parliament granted the Department additional enforcement powers in December 2018 and July 2019. The Department accepted that it has “a set of enforcement powers that are probably among the strongest in the world”, including the power to …
Government response. 6. PAC conclusion: The Department is too slow to take effective enforcement action, leaving children without maintenance for too long and allowing child maintenance arrears to grow. 6. PAC recommendation: The Department should, within one year: • conduct operational and …
HM Treasury
27
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Low-income paying parents are more likely to build up child maintenance arrears than those who are higher paid: 46% of paying parents using the CMS did not earn enough to pay income tax (£12,570 in 2021–22), but these parents represented 62% of those with arrears as at March 2021 .Alongside …
Government response. 7. PAC conclusion: The Department’s ability to collect child maintenance is limited by the affordability of payments and the system risks creating a poverty trap for some Paying Parents. 7. PAC recommendation: As part of its Treasury Minute response, the …
HM Treasury
28
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
We therefore asked the Department about the affordability of payments. The Department explained that its calculations were based on historical income, so “affordability is part of the calculation in that respect”. But it recognised that “the problem then comes when someone’s circumstances change and they no longer have the level …
Government response. 7. PAC conclusion: The Department’s ability to collect child maintenance is limited by the affordability of payments and the system risks creating a poverty trap for some Paying Parents. 7. PAC recommendation: As part of its Treasury Minute response, the …
HM Treasury
29
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The amount Paying Parents pay is based on a means tested calculation set out in primary legislation. This applies different rates above certain earnings thresholds that is higher for those on higher incomes and a flat rate of £7 a week for those with the lowest income. The Department has …
Government response. 7. PAC conclusion: The Department’s ability to collect child maintenance is limited by the affordability of payments and the system risks creating a poverty trap for some Paying Parents. 7. PAC recommendation: As part of its Treasury Minute response, the …
HM Treasury
30
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
In 2011, the Department announced that it would close the old Child Support Agency (CSA) schemes and introduce the CMS. It decided, based on its analysis, that it would not be value for money to attempt to collect all the unpaid maintenance debt on the CSA schemes. The Department reduced …
Government response. 6. PAC conclusion: The Department is too slow to take effective enforcement action, leaving children without maintenance for too long and allowing child maintenance arrears to grow. 6. PAC recommendation: The Department should, within one year: • conduct operational and …
HM Treasury
31
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department has no long-term strategy for tackling the growing unpaid maintenance balance under the current CMS scheme. Unpaid maintenance owed to parents on Collect & Pay has increased by more than £1 million per week to a total of £440 million as at October 2021.66 We therefore asked the …
Government response. 6. PAC conclusion: The Department is too slow to take effective enforcement action, leaving children without maintenance for too long and allowing child maintenance arrears to grow. 6. PAC recommendation: The Department should, within one year: • conduct operational and …
HM Treasury
32
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department has improved the accuracy of its maintenance calculations. The National Audit Office’s estimate of the financial impact of the Department’s errors fell from 2.17% of the monetary value of maintenance in 2015–16 to a record low of 0.65% for 2020–21.71 The Department said that it “would obviously want …
HM Treasury
33
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department refers cases of suspected fraud to its Financial Investigations Unit (FIU) to assess the accuracy of the award. Its FIU detected 1,400 cases involving fraud in 2020–21 and increased the child maintenance owed by £10.9 million.74 The Department relies almost entirely on parents to detect child maintenance fraud. …
Government response. 4. PAC conclusion: The Department has not taken responsibility for detecting child maintenance fraud, instead shifting this responsibility onto its customers. 4. PAC recommendation: The Department should take responsibility for managing the overall level of fraud and error in statutory …
HM Treasury
34
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department cannot currently demonstrate that its approach to fraud and error within child maintenance is proportionate as it has not assessed the risk or level of actual fraud and customer error within child maintenance as would be required if it was public expenditure.77 The Department reassured us that, despite …
Government response. 4. PAC conclusion: The Department has not taken responsibility for detecting child maintenance fraud, instead shifting this responsibility onto its customers. 4. PAC recommendation: The Department should take responsibility for managing the overall level of fraud and error in statutory …
HM Treasury
35
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department has reduced the gross cost of administering child maintenance by £132 million (27%) from £497 million in 2011–12 to £365 million in 2020–21. In real terms, this is equivalent to a £242 million (40%) reduction at 2020–21 prices. This is broadly in line with the 47% fall in …
HM Treasury
36
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
The Department told us that its Transformation programme should reduce costs and improve payment compliance by digitalising processes and allowing its staff to move from case maintenance into enforcement activities.83 It expected CMS transformation to be complete by financial year 2024–25, at a cost of more than £30 million to …
HM Treasury