Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service

Work and Pensions Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 18 May 2022 Closed: 31 Oct 2023 Parliament page
Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service is the third and final part of the Committee’s wider inquiry into children in poverty, following on from the Measurement and targets , and no recourse to public funds . The Committee looked into: How many children in the UK live in separated families? … Read more
16 Recommendations
15 Conclusions
1 Report
4 Oral sessions
4 Letters
4 Events
Activity timeline 14 events
6 Sep
2023
Correspondence
13 Jul
2023
Correspondence
6 Jul
2023
Report published
27 Apr
2023
Report published
23 Feb
2023
Correspondence
1 Feb
2023
Correspondence
18 Jan
2023
Oral evidence
18 Jan
2023
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · Room 15, Palace of Westminster
2 Nov
2022
Oral evidence
2 Nov
2022
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · Room 5, Palace of Westminster
19 Oct
2022
Oral evidence
19 Oct
2022
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · Room 5, Palace of Westminster
Oral evidence sessions 4 sessions
18 Jan 2023
View on parliament.uk
Work and Pensions Committee
Arlene Sugden · Department for Work and Pensions Hilda Massey · Department for Work and Pensions Viscount Younger of Leckie · Department for Work and Pensions
2 Nov 2022
View on parliament.uk
Work and Pensions Committee
Joshua Reddaway · National Audit Office
19 Oct 2022
View on parliament.uk
Work and Pensions Committee
Dr Christine Davies · Royal Holloway University of London Dr Jon Symonds · University of Bristol Dr Mia Hakovirta · Turku University, Finland Professor Esther Dermott · University of Bristol
7 Sep 2022
View on parliament.uk
Work and Pensions Committee
Caitlin Logan · One Parent Families Scotland Cristina Odone · Centre for Social Justice Meghan Meek-O’Connor · Save the Children Michael Lewkowicz · Families Need Fathers Victoria Benson · Gingerbread
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Sixth Report - Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service HC 272 27 Apr 2023 31 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
7 results
Clear
5 Conclusion Acknowledged
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Assess risk of fraud and error within child maintenance and publish annual estimates.
Evidence to us has raised particular concern about the fraudulent practices employed by some paying parents to reduce maintenance calculations but the Department has not made an estimate of the level of undetected customer fraud and error within the system. … Read more
Government Response
The government outlined its existing controls to combat fraud, including a dedicated Financial Investigation Unit and reliance on HMRC data for most income. It stated it is planning to include unearned income in initial calculations using HMRC data and has consulted on this, but did not commit to assessing or publishing an overall fraud and error estimate or reduction targets as recommended.
Department for Work and Pensions
View details
11 Recommendation Acknowledged
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Provide a detailed timetable for implementing recommendations from domestic abuse review work.
We thank Dr Samantha Callan for her independent and detailed report on the Child Maintenance Service’s response to domestic abuse and we welcome the broadly positive approach the Government has taken in its response to that review, accepting most of … Read more
Government Response
The government outlines several ongoing actions related to the domestic abuse review, including incorporating principles into training, reviewing materials, and trialling single named caseworkers, but does not provide a specific timetable for this work as requested.
Department for Work and Pensions
View details
15 Conclusion Acknowledged
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Current child maintenance levels undermine work incentives and Universal Credit objectives.
Government policy is to encourage work, returning to work and in-work progression as far as possible to help reduce poverty, however multiple reports have raised concern both about the affordability of maintenance payments and distorted the work incentives caused by … Read more
Government Response
The government acknowledges concerns about maintenance affordability and work incentives, stating it has begun a fundamental review of the child maintenance calculation, including updating research and considering parental incomes to reflect current social trends.
Department for Work and Pensions
View details
17 Recommendation Acknowledged
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Legislation requires rebalancing to enable easier changes to child maintenance thresholds.
As part of its work on affordability, the Department should also seek to rebalance legislation so that changes, such as uprating maintenance thresholds, can be made more readily, for example through secondary legislation.
Government Response
The government states that consideration will be given to moving child maintenance calculation provisions into secondary legislation to allow for more readily updated maintenance thresholds, as part of a broader fundamental review.
Department for Work and Pensions
View details
25 Conclusion Acknowledged
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Collect and Pay fees remain unjustified for child maintenance cases involving domestic abuse
It is particularly difficult to understand how fees, intended to incentivise the use of Direct Pay, can be justified in cases where the Department appears to have accepted such arrangements are not appropriate, such as in cases of domestic abuse. … Read more
Government Response
The government states it will look at the current charging structure and its interaction with proposed changes for victims of domestic abuse, as part of developing secondary legislation for the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Bill. It does not commit to immediately waiving fees.
Department for Work and Pensions
View details
28 Recommendation Acknowledged
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Review support and training for CMS staff within six months and report findings
We acknowledge that staff working for the Child Maintenance Service can have a difficult caseload and come across difficult and distressing situations routinely as part of their work. To ensure that staff are able to support customers, appropriate training and … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees on the importance of staff support and training, stating that CMS already proactively and continually reviews, evaluates, and enhances support tools and training materials. It commits to taking timely action to identify and offer additional training where improvements can be made, but does not commit to the requested specific review within six months or reporting findings to the Committee.
Department for Work and Pensions
View details
31 Conclusion Acknowledged
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Child Maintenance Service plagued by issues of ineffective enforcement and unaffordable payments
In summary: Our inquiry has found a number of issues with the Child Maintenance Service that need to be addressed. Receiving parents continue to report great frustration at ineffective and slow enforcement. Paying parents have described distress and being pushed … Read more
Government Response
The government thanks the Committee for its thorough inquiry into the Child Maintenance Service and welcomes the report, noting its importance in tackling child poverty and stating that detailed responses to recommendations are provided subsequently.
Department for Work and Pensions
View details
Government Response AI assessment · 31 of 16 classified
Accepted 15
Accepted in Part 1
Acknowledged 7
Deferred 3
Not Addressed 1
Rejected 4
Total 16 recs + 15 conclusions
Correspondence 4 letters
6 Sep 2023 Correspondence with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State relating to Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service
Parliament page
13 Jul 2023 Correspondence with Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State relating to Children in Poverty: Child Maintenance Service Report
Parliament page
23 Feb 2023 Correspondence with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State relating to Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service
Parliament page
1 Feb 2023 Correspondence with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State about the Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service inquiry
Parliament page