22
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Not Addressed
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 …
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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 this created a more positive environment for co- parenting. The Department charges fees for its Collect & Pay service to encourage parents to try Direct Pay arrangements first. Under child maintenance legislation, unless both parents agree to start on Collect & Pay, there must be clear evidence that the paying parent is unlikely to pay voluntarily in order to use Collect & Pay. As a result, 90% of separated families using CMS start with Direct Pay. However, only 58% of parents responding to a Department survey 13 months after their Direct Pay calculation were still on Direct Pay, of which 16% did not receive the full amount of maintenance.45 Receiving parents who indicated that they would have preferred to start on a Collect & Pay arrangement were much less likely to have an effective Direct Pay arrangement.46
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Government response AI summary
Despite stating agreement, the government's response primarily focuses on existing processes for identifying domestic abuse, reviewing completed work, and improving communications for those on Direct Pay, rather than addressing the core observation that around half of Direct Pay arrangements are ineffective or not sustained, especially …
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HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
Not Addressed
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 …
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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 issue with the other parent. The Department does not monitor whether payments are made, but does send reminders to the receiving parent, three months after they start (by text) and at each annual review, to prompt them to contact the Department if their Direct Pay arrangement is not working. Meanwhile, however, unpaid maintenance arrears can build up. On average, paying parents moving onto Collect & Pay from Direct Pay in the quarter ending September 2021 owed £1,100, around five months’ worth of maintenance.48 The Department accepted that it needed to go further to identify non-paying Direct Pay cases, and told us that its digital transformation programme should allow it to spot cases more quickly. The Department told us that its new online system made it easier for parents to report that they had not received a payment, and that digitalisation would also provide more opportunities to transform its processes; for example, it can increase the use of its My Child Maintenance account to nudge parents on Direct Pay to report non-payment.49
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Government response AI summary
Despite stating agreement, the government's response focuses heavily on existing domestic abuse support processes and general communication to parents on Direct Pay, rather than addressing the committee's observation that the department does not monitor Direct Pay payments and takes too long to identify missed payments, …
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HM Treasury