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
4 results
Clear
6 Conclusion Rejected
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Provide receiving parents with illustrative evidence list and guidance for FIU referrals.
The Department’s own assessment to the NAO “that around 50% of fraud referrals to its Financial Investigations Unit are unfounded” indicates that the system is not functioning as it should be, and, as we will return to later, demonstrates how … Read more
Government Response
The government disagreed with the committee's assessment that the Financial Investigation Unit referral system is not functioning correctly. While it continues to enhance its fraud strategy and noted a high percentage of investigations result in assessment changes, it only committed to exploring options to educate customers on services offered, rather than providing specific guidance or setting out how it will reduce unfounded claims.
Department for Work and Pensions
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10 Recommendation Rejected
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Revise Universal Credit deduction priority list to place child maintenance above government debt.
Child maintenance currently ranks low on the priority list for Universal Credit deductions at twelfth, below deductions for DWP debt, such as advance payments. We disagree that pursuing such debt should hold a higher priority than child maintenance. Deductions for … Read more
Government Response
The government rejected the recommendation to reprioritise child maintenance deductions above government debt. It stated that child maintenance is already considered before other government debts like benefit overpayments and there are no current plans to alter the existing deduction priority list, citing the need to balance various deduction types.
Department for Work and Pensions
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21 Conclusion Rejected
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Child benefit splitting for parents with shared care is currently impossible and needed.
Presently it is not possible for child benefit to be split between parents, even in cases of equally shared care. The Department should work with HMRC to enable parents with shared care to split child benefit between them.
Government Response
The government rejected the recommendation to enable splitting child benefit between parents with shared care. It argued that existing measures provide appropriate support and that splitting payments would introduce additional operational burdens, complexity for claimants, and costs for the Exchequer.
Department for Work and Pensions
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24 Recommendation Rejected
Sixth Report - Children in poverty…
Introduce means-testing system for Collect and Pay fees for low-income parents.
We have heard evidence that was strongly critical of the effectiveness of Collect and Pay fees. Such fees are particularly pernicious for parents on low incomes and we recommend that the Government should introduce a system for the means-testing of … Read more
Government Response
The government rejects means-testing Collect and Pay fees, stating that charges are the right approach to encourage parents to use direct pay arrangements. It believes means-testing could create perverse incentives and add complexity to the system.
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