UK Inquiry Tracker

Child Maintenance

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 12 Jan 2022 Closed: 14 Oct 2022 Parliament page

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) - set up in 2012 to replace the previous Child Support Agency - is for separated families who have not been able to reach a private arrangement about how their children’s living costs will be paid. The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that £934 … Read more

29 Recommendations

7 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

1 Event

Activity timeline 4 events

14 Oct
2022

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Ninth report from Session 2022-23

22 Jun
2022

Report published

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

16 Mar
2022

Oral evidence

Child Maintenance

16 Mar
2022

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Wilson Room, Portcullis House

Child Maintenance

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

16 Mar 2022

View on parliament.uk

Child Maintenance

Arlene Sugden · Department for Work and Pensions Hilda Massey · Department for Work and Pensions Peter Schofield · Department for Work and Pensions

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance	HC 255	22 Jun 2022	36	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

12 results

2 Recommendation Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

The Department has displayed insufficient curiosity around the needs of some of the most vulnerable...

The Department has displayed insufficient curiosity around the needs of some of the most vulnerable separated families and their children. Take-up of the Department’s CMS scheme is substantially lower than it expected. An estimated 18% of separated families used the … Read more The Department has displayed insufficient curiosity around the needs of some of the most vulnerable separated families and their children. Take-up of the Department’s CMS scheme is substantially lower than it expected. An estimated 18% of separated families used the CMS scheme in 2019–20, compared to an expected 33%. As a result, there may be around 350,000 parents with caring responsibilities who do not have a child maintenance arrangement but would like one. The Department’s research shows that the lowest-income households are most likely to have no form of child maintenance arrangement. Some 39% of surveyed separated parents who were either not working or were economically inactive had no child maintenance arrangements in place, compared with only 21% of those who were working. Some ethnic groups, including Black parents, also appear less likely to use the statutory scheme but the Department has no plans to look into why this 6 Child Maintenance is the case. The Department’s customer satisfaction survey for the scheme excludes non-English speakers, meaning the views and experiences of this group are not represented. We welcome the Department’s commitment to raising awareness of its CMS scheme and other services, but we are disappointed that this had not happened sooner and are not convinced that its current approach focuses enough on why take- up is lower amongst specific groups. Recommendation: The Department should: • within one year, develop a clear action plan to assess, tackle and monitor the ‘take-up gap’ between the number of separated parents that would benefit from using its statutory CMS scheme (and other relevant support services) and those that actually use them; and • to support this, undertake more inclusive research to understand its customers and users of its service. It should ensure people who do not communicate in English are included in its research and establish why under-represented groups, such as some minority ethnic groups, seem less like Show less

Government Response

The government disagrees with the recommendation, says it has improved diversity information collection, undertakes surveys in multiple languages, and sees no need for new research given the increase in demand for CMS.

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4 Recommendation Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

The Department has not taken responsibility for detecting child maintenance fraud, instead shifting this responsibility...

The Department has not taken responsibility for detecting child maintenance fraud, instead shifting this responsibility onto its customers. The Department asserts that it does not treat tackling child maintenance fraud, where children often suffer as the end user, with any … Read more The Department has not taken responsibility for detecting child maintenance fraud, instead shifting this responsibility onto its customers. The Department asserts that it does not treat tackling child maintenance fraud, where children often suffer as the end user, with any less enthusiasm than it does tackling fraud against the taxpayer. However, its approach does not appear to reflect this sentiment. It has not assessed the risk or actual level of fraud and error within child maintenance in the way that would be required if it was public expenditure, and its approach to fraud detection relies almost entirely on receiving parents challenging the value of maintenance assessments. This last point means that if a paying parent is notified that they are under investigation for allegedly understating their income there is a risk that they will know or suspect that their ex-partner has reported them. It would therefore be understandable that many receiving parents would be reluctant to come forward with such reports, particularly if it is not clear what the outcome will be. The Department says that, in 91% of cases, it can rely legally on historical earned- income data from HMRC and its own benefits data to assess people’s earned income and benefit status, and also plans to update legislation to include unearned income information held by HMRC in the initial calculation. Nonetheless, the Department accepts that child maintenance is still vulnerable to certain types of customer fraud and error, such as misdeclaration of personal circumstances that affect the award but are not related to income, or the 9% of cases where it cannot rely on historic tax or benefit records. Whilst we welcome a proportionate, iterative approach to tackling fraud and error, the Department’s current approach risks seriously underestimating its susceptibility to fraud and ignoring the various good reasons why parents may not raise concerns about fraud. Recommendation: The Department should take res Show less

Government Response

The government disagrees with the recommendation to take responsibility for detecting child maintenance fraud, stating it already has proportionate and cost-effective controls and a fraud strategy in place.

HM Treasury

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5 Recommendation Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

The Department is too willing to blame low levels of customer satisfaction on CMS customers...

The Department is too willing to blame low levels of customer satisfaction on CMS customers being difficult to please, despite its own systemic customer service failings. It is disheartening that customer satisfaction is no better now than it was under … Read more The Department is too willing to blame low levels of customer satisfaction on CMS customers being difficult to please, despite its own systemic customer service failings. It is disheartening that customer satisfaction is no better now than it was under the failed CSA and that less than half (46%) of customers report they are satisfied with the service they receive. Given that the CMS scheme was 8 Child Maintenance set-up to replace an agency whose customer service was generally considered to be diabolical, it is unacceptable that the Department has not put in place a robust method for objectively assessing whether it is providing a reasonable level of service. In explaining low levels of customer satisfaction, the Department emphasises the challenging nature of its caseload and areas where it has improved its performance, such as payment accuracy. However, CMG receives by far the most complaints, and the most upheld complaints per 1,000 customers (1.15), of any of the Department’s business areas, suggesting fundamental issues with the way it handles customers’ concerns. Despite the large number of complaints upheld, the Department is less likely to uphold complaints relating to child maintenance (around one in three are upheld) than it does for other service areas. It told us this is because of the nature of CMG’s caseload. However, child maintenance accounts for a disproportionately high share of all rejected complaints subsequently investigated and upheld (or partially upheld) by the Department’s Independent Case Examiner, suggesting that the Department may be incorrectly rejecting some complaints. Recommendation: The Department should use its digital transformation to develop performance indicators that enable it to fully understand why customer satisfaction is so low, and target improvement where data suggests there may be an underlying service issue, for example: where high numbers of complaints are upheld. The Department should also, within one year, review Ch Show less

Government Response

The government disagrees, stating that the Customer Experience Directorate actively invests in reviewing cases upheld by the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) to identify and implement service improvements, and will continue to utilize existing ICE publications to inform lessons learned.

HM Treasury

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8 Recommendation Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

The Department has repeatedly failed to achieve savings targets for the child maintenance scheme over...

The Department has repeatedly failed to achieve savings targets for the child maintenance scheme over the past decade and again risks overpromising on the benefits of its current transformation programme. The Department has reduced the cost to the taxpayer of … Read more

Government Response

The government disagrees, stating their Transformation Programme introduces changes to improve efficiency and automation. They report performance in Annual Reports and Accounts, and regularly review services and programmes to ensure value for money.

HM Treasury

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1 Conclusion Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence...

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Work & Pensions (the Department) about child maintenance in Great Britain.1 We also received and considered written evidence from individuals and … Read more

Government Response

The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation, stating that the Department for Work and Pensions (the department) has a clear interest in how child maintenance is integrated into wider government policy, and it intends to continue to discharge this working with other government departments.

HM Treasury

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12 Recommendation Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

The Department does not know whether all groups of parents find CMS equally accessible or...

The Department does not know whether all groups of parents find CMS equally accessible or whether CMS produces different outcomes for different groups. The Department’s research found that low-income families, those with disabilities, and those with higher levels of parental … Read more

Government Response

The government disagrees with undertaking more inclusive research to understand customers and users of its service because improvements have already been made to collect diversity information, and given the increase in demand for the CMS, they do not see the need for new research at this time.

HM Treasury

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13 Recommendation Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

The NAO found that parents from some minority groups, such as Black, African, Caribbean or...

The NAO found that parents from some minority groups, such as Black, African, Caribbean or Black British parents, are less likely to use the CMS scheme. However, the Department has not conducted research into why this might be or whether … Read more The NAO found that parents from some minority groups, such as Black, African, Caribbean or Black British parents, are less likely to use the CMS scheme. However, the Department has not conducted research into why this might be or whether there is any indirect racial discrimination.17 Race is a ‘protected characteristic’ and under the Public Sector Equality Duty, which came into force in April 2011, public authorities are required, among other duties, to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not.18 However the Department told us that it had no plans to do any research into why take-up is lower amongst certain groups, and that its focus was on increasing general awareness of the CMS. We were therefore not convinced that the Department’s approach focuses enough on why take- up is lower amongst specific groups, such as Black women and were concerned that this was indicative of a lack of curiosity on the Department’s part. The Department informed us that it needed to increase the ethnicity declaration rate (which it reports as 75%) to improve the data on which it could base analysis, and would reflect on whether it has any plans to make it higher.19 We raised concerns that the Department excludes certain types of customers, such as non-English speakers, from its customer satisfaction research on its CMS scheme ‘for practical purposes’. The Department told us that it would take away our request to commit do some research that includes non-English speaking parents, including on why they may not use the service.20 17 Qq 22–23; C&AG’s Report paras 1.23–1.24 18 Comptroller and Auditor General: Employment Support- Kickstart, session 2021–22, 26 November 2021, HC 801. Footnote 32 to paragraph 3.12 19 Qq 23–31; C&AG’s Report, para 1.24 20 Qq 77 and 78; The Department’s published Child Maintenance Service Client Satisfaction: Background information and methodology, December 2016, page 3. Child Maintenance Show less

Government Response

The government disagrees with the recommendation, citing improvements to diversity information collection and an increase in demand for CMS, making new research unnecessary at this time. They will undertake further internal analysis if demand stabilises or subsides.

HM Treasury

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17 Recommendation Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

Despite child maintenance having the highest rate of complaints within the Department, the Department upholds...

Despite child maintenance having the highest rate of complaints within the Department, the Department upholds a lower proportion of complaints relating to child 21 Qq 124–125; C&AG’s Report, paras 5, 1.14, 3.10 22 C&AG’s Report, para 3.11 and 3.12 23 … Read more

Government Response

The government disagrees with the recommendation to review Child Maintenance cases where the Independent Case Examiner has upheld a complaint and report to the committee its analysis of the key themes and lessons to be learned, stating that it actively invests in reviewing such cases and will continue to utilise existing ICE publications to inform lessons learned.

HM Treasury

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27 Recommendation Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

Low-income paying parents are more likely to build up child maintenance arrears than those who...

Low-income paying parents are more likely to build up child maintenance arrears than those who are higher paid: 46% of paying parents using the CMS did not earn enough to pay income tax (£12,570 in 2021–22), but these parents represented … Read more

Government Response

The government disagrees with the recommendation to review the affordability of Child Maintenance Payments, stating that setting out plans relies upon a policy decision, but it is considering such plans and will update the Work and Pensions Committee in due course.

HM Treasury

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29 Recommendation Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

The amount Paying Parents pay is based on a means tested calculation set out in...

The amount Paying Parents pay is based on a means tested calculation set out in primary legislation. This applies different rates above certain earnings thresholds that is higher for those on higher incomes and a flat rate of £7 a … Read more

Government Response

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33 Recommendation Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

The Department refers cases of suspected fraud to its Financial Investigations Unit (FIU) to assess...

The Department refers cases of suspected fraud to its Financial Investigations Unit (FIU) to assess the accuracy of the award. Its FIU detected 1,400 cases involving fraud in 2020–21 and increased the child maintenance owed by £10.9 million.74 The Department … Read more

Government Response

The government disagrees with the recommendation to take responsibility for detecting child maintenance fraud, stating they already have proportionate controls in place and that intrusive investigation can harm maintenance payments. They are consulting on legislative changes to include unearned income in calculations and will use risk profiling and threat scanning.

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34 Recommendation Rejected

Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

The Department cannot currently demonstrate that its approach to fraud and error within child maintenance...

The Department cannot currently demonstrate that its approach to fraud and error within child maintenance is proportionate as it has not assessed the risk or level of actual fraud and customer error within child maintenance as would be required if … Read more

Government Response

The government disagrees with the recommendation, stating that they already have proportionate and cost-effective controls and are enhancing them. They believe intrusive investigations could break down maintenance payments, impacting the child's welfare.

HM Treasury

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Government Response AI assessment · 30 of 29 classified

Accepted 14

Accepted in Part 2

Deferred 2

Rejected 12

Total 29 recs + 7 conclusions