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Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Child Maintenance

Status: Closed Opened: 12 Jan 2022 Closed: 14 Oct 2022 7 recommendations 29 conclusions 1 report

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) - set up in 2012 to replace the previous Child Support Agency - is for separated families who have not been able to reach a private arrangement about how their children’s living costs will be paid. The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that £934 million of statutory child maintenance …

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance HC 255 22 Jun 2022 36 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

2 items
3 Recommendation Ninth Report - Child Maintenance Accepted

The Department’s system of child maintenance is not designed to protect those subject to domestic...

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
6 Recommendation Ninth Report - Child Maintenance Accepted

The Department is too slow to take effective enforcement action, leaving children without maintenance for...

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

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
16 Mar 2022 Arlene Sugden · Department for Work and Pensions, Hilda Massey · Department for Work and Pensions, Peter Schofield · Department for Work and Pensions View ↗