Recommendation 32

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 to go even further than that”.72 The Department designed CMS to reduce the risk of customer fraud and error. In 91% of cases, the Department says that it can legally rely on historical earned-income data from HMRC or benefits data to calculate the maintenance. Nonetheless, child maintenance is still vulnerable to certain types of customer fraud and error where the Department cannot rely on historic tax records. For example, under current legislation, unearned income, such as dividends, would not be considered unless there was a ‘variation request’ from the receiving parent. Customer fraud and error can also occur where either parent misstates their personal circumstances, such as the number of other children they are responsible for.73