22
Not Addressed
The Department’s legislation for child maintenance is designed to encourage parents to use Direct Pay...
Conclusion
The Department’s legislation for child maintenance is designed to encourage parents to use Direct Pay first, but around half of Direct Pay arrangements are either not sustained or not effective. The Department told us that it preferred parents using its CMS to have a Direct Pay arrangement as it believed this created a more positive environment for co- parenting. The Department charges fees for its Collect & Pay service to encourage parents to try Direct Pay arrangements first. Under child maintenance legislation, unless both parents agree to start on Collect & Pay, there must be clear evidence that the paying parent is unlikely to pay voluntarily in order to use Collect & Pay. As a result, 90% of separated families using CMS start with Direct Pay. However, only 58% of parents responding to a Department survey 13 months after their Direct Pay calculation were still on Direct Pay, of which 16% did not receive the full amount of maintenance.45 Receiving parents who indicated that they would have preferred to start on a Collect & Pay arrangement were much less likely to have an effective Direct Pay arrangement.46
Government Response Summary
Despite stating agreement, the government's response primarily focuses on existing processes for identifying domestic abuse, reviewing completed work, and improving communications for those on Direct Pay, rather than addressing the core observation that around half of Direct Pay arrangements are ineffective or not sustained, especially for parents who would have preferred Collect & Pay.
Government Response
Not Addressed
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 3.2 The department already has robust processes in place for identifying victims of domestic abuse and ensuring they receive the right support. The department has call scripts that ask directly about domestic abuse; mandatory domestic abuse training for all CMS staff; a Complex Needs Toolkit and a Domestic Abuse Plan to guide caseworker responses to domestic abuse victims and survivors. 3.3 The department also commissioned an independent review of CMS domestic abuse processes in Autumn 2021, which has now completed. The government is currently assessing its recommendations. 3.4 Furthermore, the department will assess the forthcoming Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance, once published by the Home Office, to assess implications for ways in which coercive control can be best identified and for best practice with regards to service delivery and communications for domestic abuse survivors. 3.5 The department is in the process of adapting its Transformation Programme to incorporate further support and communications with domestic abuse survivors into CMS organisational design and throughout the customer journey, which will continue throughout 2023. 3.6 More comprehensive conversations are being considered to ensure customers are closing cases for the right reasons and are aware they can return to our service. Although the department will not be able to routinely follow-up on closed cases, once cases move from Collect & Pay to Direct Pay parents are given clear communications about what to do if the arrangement is not working through mobile text messages, letters at each annual review and there are prompts on ‘My Child Maintenance Case’.
Source
Committee
Public Accounts Committee
Inquiry
Child Maintenance
Report
Ninth Report - Child Maintenance
22 Jun 2022
HC 255
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age
4.1 yrs
Report published
22 Jun 2022