Child Maintenance Service

Mr Will Forster, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Woking, asked the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Andrew Western, about the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service in collecting payments. In response, the Minister stated that the Child Maintenance Service is committed to ensuring that separated parents support their children financially and to taking robust enforcement action against those who do not. He noted that between March 2023 and the previous year, the percentage of parents paying something towards maintenance through the collect and pay service increased from 65% to 69%. The Minister acknowledged that child maintenance payments play a crucial role in keeping hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty each year, and the Government is determined to increase those collection levels further. Mr Forster followed up by noting that around half of children in separated families, or 1.8 million children, are receiving no support from their non-residential parent. The Minister responded that the figure is actually around 40%, but he agreed that it is not good enough. He explained that there are varied reasons for this, and some parents do not want an arrangement. The Minister stated that the Government is looking at a recently concluded consultation on the future of the Child Maintenance Service and will consider next steps to try to increase collection levels. Another MP, Andrew Cooper from Mid Cheshire, intervened to share that two of his constituents had contacted him with separate but similar cases relating to obtaining child maintenance payments from abusive ex-partners. He explained that in both cases, the abusers had been able to use features of the system to avoid paying their fair share, leaving the constituents with a shortfall of thousands of pounds. The Minister acknowledged the seriousness of domestic abuse and stated that the recently concluded consultation looked to address some of the issues with the direct pay service, which has been open to abuse and has led to victims of domestic abuse continuing to be terrorised. The Minister assured that the Government will look to address this issue moving forward.