Ninth Report - Child Maintenance

Select Committee

Public Accounts Committee HC 255 22 June 2022

Report Status Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations 36 items (29 recs)

Source View on Parliament website

Government Response (AI assessment · 30 of 36 classified)

Accepted 14

Accepted in Part 2

Deferred 2

Rejected 12

Recommendations

14 results

3 Accepted

The Department’s system of child maintenance is not designed to protect those subject to domestic...

Recommendation

The Department’s system of child maintenance is not designed to protect those subject to domestic abuse or coercive control. The Department designed the current child maintenance system to emphasise collaboration between parents, with the CMS available as a voluntary safety … Read more The Department’s system of child maintenance is not designed to protect those subject to domestic abuse or coercive control. The Department designed the current child maintenance system to emphasise collaboration between parents, with the CMS available as a voluntary safety net that separated parents can choose to use if they decide to. For survivors of domestic abuse, the CMS may be the safest and only way to secure maintenance from their ex-partner. Around three in five parents that apply to CMS report that they or their child had experienced domestic abuse. The Department points to the training and controls it has put in place to protect such parents subject to domestic abuse and coercive control. However, we are deeply concerned by submissions from stakeholders relating to how the CMS fails to provide these parents with appropriate support or consideration for their circumstances, and how the system exacerbates conflict between parents and financial coercion by requiring intervention from the receiving parent before CMS can take action in a case. This leaves the system open to being ‘played’ by parents wishing to exert coercive control over the other parent, including using the child maintenance system to continue to abuse their former partners, for example by withholding payments or access to children. The Department does not investigate why people stop using its services and whether there are any issues of financial or other coercion in such cases. It also knows little about separated parents without any form of arrangement, and therefore, whether some victims of domestic abuse of coercive control are prevented from using the service. Recommendation: The Department should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, outline how it will identify cases which potentially involve domestic abuse or coercive control and adapt its services and communications in response. It should build into its transformation plans: clearer routes for parents to flag and communicate do Show less

Government Response Summary

The department has robust processes and training in place for identifying victims of domestic abuse. They will also assess the forthcoming Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance and adapt their Transformation Programme to incorporate further support and communications with domestic abuse survivors, with considerations for more comprehensive conversations when cases close.

HM Treasury

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6 Accepted

The Department is too slow to take effective enforcement action, leaving children without maintenance for...

Recommendation

The Department is too slow to take effective enforcement action, leaving children without maintenance for too long and allowing child maintenance arrears to grow. The Department designed its CMS scheme to encourage parents to use Direct Pay first, and the … Read more The Department is too slow to take effective enforcement action, leaving children without maintenance for too long and allowing child maintenance arrears to grow. The Department designed its CMS scheme to encourage parents to use Direct Pay first, and the supporting legislation forces some receiving parents onto Direct Pay even when they assert correctly that their ex-partner will not pay. It is therefore no surprise that around half of new Direct Pay arrangements are either not sustained or are not effective, allowing unpaid maintenance debts to build to an average of £1,100 before the parents eventually move onto Collect & Pay. The Department accepts that it needs to go further to identify non-paying Direct Pay cases more quickly. The Department has improved compliance rates on Collect & Pay but around half of paying parents still paid less maintenance than was due in the quarter ending September 2021. Where paying parents continue to be non- compliant, the Department is slow to advance cases onto civil enforcement action. The Department told us it wants to speed up its enforcement processes but is restricted in how it can pursue unpaid maintenance, as many of the enforcement steps are defined by legislation and require action by external bodies, such as the courts. As a result, it can take years before payments are made to receiving parents whilst arrears continue to build. In addition, some paying parents simply cannot afford maintenance payments, meaning enforcement is unlikely to result in any more maintenance actually being paid. The amount of money owed by paying parents is forecast to reach £1 billion by March 2031, and, without legislative change is at risk of growing indefinitely. Child Maintenance 9 Recommendation: The Department should, within one year: • conduct operational and user research to better understand how customers progress through its collection and enforcement process, to identify any operational or legislative barriers to reducing the ove Show less

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the recommendation to conduct research to understand how customers progress through the collection and enforcement process and is already completing insight and analysis and utilising existing user research. It is reviewing its internal processes and current organisational design structure to ensure cases can be transitioned through the customer journey more efficiently.

HM Treasury

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14 Accepted

Customer satisfaction with the CMS is no better than under the old CSA schemes.

Recommendation

Customer satisfaction with the CMS is no better than under the old CSA schemes. The Department’s internal survey results show that in the quarter ending December 2019 (before the pandemic), the Department’s customer satisfaction rating was 60%. This is lower … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees to develop performance indicators to understand low customer satisfaction and target improvements. They will build on the customer service strategy, analyze complaints, conduct user research, and introduce a "Voice of the Customer" program.

HM Treasury

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15 Accepted

The Department’s Customer Charter (the Charter) covers four customer service areas: ‘ease of access’; ‘getting...

Recommendation

The Department’s Customer Charter (the Charter) covers four customer service areas: ‘ease of access’; ‘getting it right’; ‘keeping you informed’; and ‘right treatment’. The NAO found that it is difficult to assess the Department objectively against these areas because the … Read more

Government Response Summary

The department will use its digital transformation to develop performance indicators and target improvement where data suggests service issues. They will also develop user research focused on customer perception and introduce a program allowing real-time gathering of customer feedback.

HM Treasury

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16 Accepted

The Department received 6,521 complaints about child maintenance (around six for every 1,000 customers) in...

Recommendation

The Department received 6,521 complaints about child maintenance (around six for every 1,000 customers) in the year to 30 September 2021. This was considerably down from pre-pandemic levels in line with a general fall in complaints to the Department during … Read more

Government Response Summary

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18 Accepted

The Department designed the current child maintenance system to emphasise collaboration between parents, with the...

Recommendation

The Department designed the current child maintenance system to emphasise collaboration between parents, with the CMS available as a voluntary safety net for those separated parents to choose to use if they decide to.31 Written evidence from the Domestic Abuse … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the recommendation to outline how it will identify cases which potentially involve domestic abuse or coercive control and adapt its services and communications in response, and describes existing and planned measures.

HM Treasury

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19 Accepted

Parents can use the child maintenance system to continue to abuse their former partners, for...

Recommendation

Parents can use the child maintenance system to continue to abuse their former partners, for example by withholding payments or access to children. Written evidence from Gingerbread and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner set out that, for survivors of domestic abuse, … Read more Parents can use the child maintenance system to continue to abuse their former partners, for example by withholding payments or access to children. Written evidence from Gingerbread and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner set out that, for survivors of domestic abuse, the CMS may be the safest and only way to secure maintenance from their ex-partner.34 However, although vulnerable and low-income families, those with disabilities, and those with higher levels of parental conflict are more likely to have no arrangement in place, the Department knows little about separated parents without any form of arrangement.35 It does not know how many cases there are in which domestic abuse or coercive control may be a barrier to setting up and maintaining an effective child maintenance arrangement. The Department’s legislation is designed to encourage parents who do use the CMS to use Direct Pay first to encourage collaboration.36 The Domestic Abuse Commissioner told us that it “would encourage caution in any efforts by the CMS to encourage collaboration between receiving and paying parents. It is vital that an emphasis 27 C&AG’s report, para 3.7 28 Qq 129, 131 29 Qq 129–131; C&AG’s Report, paras 3.7, 3.9 30 Qq 128, 131 31 C&AG’s Report, para 1.19 32 CMS 0044, written evidence submitted by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, 22 March 2022. 33 Department for Work & Pensions, National Tables Child Maintenance Service Statistics data to September 2021, Table 2 34 CMS 0042, written evidence submitted by Gingerbread, 22 March 2022; CMS 0044 35 Q42; C&AG’s Report, paras 1.22, 1.24, 2.11 and 2.13 36 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.9–2.12 Child Maintenance 17 on collaboration does not lead to CMS staff failing to hear concerns from victims and survivors about the risks the perpetrator poses to them and their children.”37 It further cautioned that Direct Pay arrangements can increase the harm and risk to victims of domestic abuse because they have to ask the perpetrator directly for payments.38 Show less

Government Response Summary

The government agrees to identify cases involving domestic abuse or coercive control and adapt services/communications. They cite existing processes like call scripts and mandatory training, and are adapting the Transformation Programme to incorporate further support for domestic abuse survivors throughout the customer journey.

HM Treasury

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20 Accepted

We asked the Department how it ensured that its approach to monitoring child maintenance cases...

Recommendation

We asked the Department how it ensured that its approach to monitoring child maintenance cases was properly identifying and addressing cases of domestic abuse and coercive control, rather than waiting to be alerted through non-payment or through the receiving parent … Read more

Government Response Summary

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21 Accepted

The Department told us that it provided specific training for staff to identify domestic abuse...

Recommendation

The Department told us that it provided specific training for staff to identify domestic abuse and coercive control, and that it could put in place controls to avoid contact with the paying parent (such as non-geographic bank accounts). It explained … Read more

Government Response Summary

The department will adapt its transformation programme to incorporate further support and communications with domestic abuse survivors into CMS organisational design and throughout the customer journey, and consider more comprehensive conversations to ensure customers are closing cases for the right reasons.

HM Treasury

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24 Accepted

The Department has improved its enforcement of maintenance on Collect & Pay arrangements, but many...

Recommendation

The Department has improved its enforcement of maintenance on Collect & Pay arrangements, but many parents receive less than they are entitled to. Compliance rates on Collect & Pay have risen from under one-third (31%) of paying parents contributing more … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees to conduct operational and user research to understand the collection and enforcement process and develop a strategy to tackle unpaid maintenance debt, including reviewing legal processes and dependencies on third parties. They are also drafting regulations to extinguish low level debt and expand the list of organisations required to comply with requests from CMS.

HM Treasury

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25 Accepted

There are several reasons why enforcing payments can take a long time.

Recommendation

There are several reasons why enforcing payments can take a long time. For example, the Department can be slow to start civil enforcement activity where other attempts at collection have failed. As at September 2021, only around one-third (34%) of … Read more

Government Response Summary

The department will continue to complete extensive operational insight and analysis to better understand how customers progress and inform a more efficient design. It is also reviewing legal processes and dependencies on third parties, with an implementation approach by Summer 2023, and drafting regulations to extinguish low-level debt.

HM Treasury

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26 Accepted

We asked the Department what use it was making of its enforcement powers.54 Parliament granted...

Recommendation

We asked the Department what use it was making of its enforcement powers.54 Parliament granted the Department additional enforcement powers in December 2018 and July 2019. The Department accepted that it has “a set of enforcement powers that are probably … Read more

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30 Accepted

In 2011, the Department announced that it would close the old Child Support Agency (CSA)...

Recommendation

In 2011, the Department announced that it would close the old Child Support Agency (CSA) schemes and introduce the CMS. It decided, based on its analysis, that it would not be value for money to attempt to collect all the … Read more

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31 Accepted

The Department has no long-term strategy for tackling the growing unpaid maintenance balance under the...

Recommendation

The Department has no long-term strategy for tackling the growing unpaid maintenance balance under the current CMS scheme. Unpaid maintenance owed to parents on Collect & Pay has increased by more than £1 million per week to a total of … Read more

Government Response Summary

HM Treasury

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