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
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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
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Work and Pensions Committee
Joshua Reddaway · National Audit Office
19 Oct 2022
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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
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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
3 results
Clear
8 Recommendation Deferred
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Confirm plans for implementing partial child maintenance deductions in Universal Credit and their priority.
Competing priorities for the Universal Credit system, specifically work on fraud and error and the automation of processes to allow the expansion of the move to Universal Credit, mean the Department has not undertaken work to implement capability in the … Read more
Government Response
The government acknowledges that legislative changes would be needed for partial deductions but states there are no estimated timescales due to current Universal Credit system work focusing on fraud, error, and migration.
Department for Work and Pensions
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9 Recommendation Deferred
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Seek legislative authority to process partial Universal Credit deductions for child maintenance arrears.
The Department should seek, as part of any future legislative change in the Child Maintenance Service system, the authority to process partial deductions from Universal Credit for child maintenance arrears.
Government Response
The government commits to amending legislation for partial deductions when it can be implemented but states there are no estimated timescales as Universal Credit development is currently focused on other priorities.
Department for Work and Pensions
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13 Recommendation Deferred
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Produce an analysis of reasons for increased families lacking child maintenance arrangements.
The proportion of families with private arrangements has increased since the 2012 reforms but this has also been accompanied by an increase in the number of families without an arrangement. There is evidence that a significant number of Children in … Read more
Government Response
The government stated it has not conducted specific research into the increase in families without child maintenance arrangements, although it monitors this annually and has general research on separated families. It listed reasons why some parents don't want arrangements and concluded that it does not currently plan further research on this specific increase but will consider it as part of any future policy reforms.
Department for Work and Pensions
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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