Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

Public Accounts Committee HC 255 Published 22 June 2022

Report Status

Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations

36 items (7 recs)

Source

View on Parliament website ↗

Government Response

AI assessment · 8 of 36 classified

Accepted 2

Deferred 1

Rejected 5

Recommendations

2 results

3 Accepted

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

Recommendation

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 … Read more 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 decide to. For survivors of domestic abuse, the CMS may be the safest and only way to secure maintenance from their ex-partner. Around three in five parents that apply to CMS report that they or their child had experienced domestic abuse. The Department points to the training and controls it has put in place to protect such parents subject to domestic abuse and coercive control. However, we are deeply concerned by submissions from stakeholders relating to how the CMS fails to provide these parents with appropriate support or consideration for their circumstances, and how the system exacerbates conflict between parents and financial coercion by requiring intervention from the receiving parent before CMS can take action in a case. This leaves the system open to being ‘played’ by parents wishing to exert coercive control over the other parent, including using the child maintenance system to continue to abuse their former partners, for example by withholding payments or access to children. The Department does not investigate why people stop using its services and whether there are any issues of financial or other coercion in such cases. It also knows little about separated parents without any form of arrangement, and therefore, whether some victims of domestic abuse of coercive control are prevented from using the service. 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 do Show less

Government Response Summary

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, with considerations for more comprehensive conversations when cases close.

HM Treasury

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6 Accepted

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

Recommendation

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 … Read more 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 when they assert correctly that their ex-partner will not pay. It is therefore no surprise that around half of new Direct Pay arrangements are either not sustained or are not effective, allowing unpaid maintenance debts to build to an average of £1,100 before the parents eventually move onto Collect & Pay. The Department accepts that it needs to go further to identify non-paying Direct Pay cases more quickly. The Department has improved compliance rates on Collect & Pay but around half of paying parents still paid less maintenance than was due in the quarter ending September 2021. Where paying parents continue to be non- compliant, the Department is slow to advance cases onto civil enforcement action. The Department told us it wants to speed up its enforcement processes but is restricted in how it can pursue unpaid maintenance, as many of the enforcement steps are defined by legislation and require action by external bodies, such as the courts. As a result, it can take years before payments are made to receiving parents whilst arrears continue to build. In addition, some paying parents simply cannot afford maintenance payments, meaning enforcement is unlikely to result in any more maintenance actually being paid. The amount of money owed by paying parents is forecast to reach £1 billion by March 2031, and, without legislative change is at risk of growing indefinitely. Child Maintenance 9 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 ove Show less

Government Response Summary

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 organisational design structure to ensure cases can be transitioned through the customer journey more efficiently.

HM Treasury

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