Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 20
20
We asked the Department how it ensured that its approach to monitoring child maintenance cases...
Conclusion
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 position to do so. We were particularly concerned to hear of cases where parents reported that their relationship with the other parent had deteriorated as a result of them requesting a review of their finances. The NAO reported that the Department does not monitor the experiences of all customers of its Direct Pay service. The Department acknowledged that there were customers with whom it would not engage regularly.39 The Department also does not routinely contact customers after they have stopped using the CMS and therefore does not know whether domestic abuse and coercive control was a factor in that decision, or the long-term impact of the CMS on their relationship. It told us that “there is an equal amount of evidence—or more, even—of a family closing a case because it is actually working for them now and they do not need the service any longer as it has brought them together and the arrangements are working for them”.40 However, a Departmental survey found that 13 months after their Direct Pay calculation, 19% of parents had left the CMS and had no form of maintenance at all.41
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
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 transformation plans: clearer routes for parents to flag and communicate domestic abuse and coercive abuse; better integration with wider support services for victims of domestic abuse and coercive control; early identification and intervention for Direct Pay arrangements that are not working; and routine follow-up for cases that close or move from Collect & Pay onto Direct Pay. 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 3.2 The department already has robust processes in place for identifying victims of domestic abuse and ensuring they receive the right support. The department has call scripts that ask directly about domestic abuse; mandatory domestic abuse training for all CMS staff; a Complex Needs Toolkit and a Domestic Abuse Plan to guide caseworker responses to domestic abuse victims and survivors. 3.3 The department also commissioned an independent review of CMS domestic abuse processes in Autumn 2021, which has now completed. The government is currently assessing its recommendations. 3.4 Furthermore, the department will assess the forthcoming Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance, once published by the Home Office, to assess implications for ways in which coercive control can be best identified and for best practice with regards to service delivery and communications for domestic abuse survivors. 3.5 The department is in the process of adapting its Transformation Programme to incorporate further support and communications with domestic abuse survivors into CMS organisational design and throughout the customer journey, which will continue throughout 2023. 3.6 More comprehensive conversations are being considered to ensure customers are closing cases for the right reasons and are aware they can return to our service. Although the department will not be able to routinely follow-up on closed cases, once cases move from Collect & Pay to Direct Pay parents are given clear communications about what to do if the arrangement is not working through mobile text messages, letters at each annual review and there are prompts on ‘My Child Maintenance Case’.