Cases moving from Direct Pay to Collect and Pay appear to have substantial arrears on average. The Department should more systematically and swiftly move ineffective Direct Pay cases into Collect and Pay. To do this, the Department should consider imposing a change to how cases are moved to Collect and Pay so that is triggered by child maintenance arrears reaching half of the current average arrears.

Cases moving from Direct Pay to Collect and Pay appear to have substantial arrears on average. The Department should more systematically and swiftly move ineffective Direct Pay cases into Collect and Pay. To do this, the Department should consider imposing a change to how cases are moved to Collect and Pay so that is triggered by child maintenance arrears reaching half of the current average arrears. Type: conclusion | Number: 3 | Paragraph: 25 | Response status: under_consideration Government response: The Direct Pay service allows parents to focus on collaboration and managing payments between themselves but with support from the Child Maintenance Service. The CMS generally only becomes aware of the existence of arrears on a direct pay case at the point that a parent requests a move to collect an