Child Maintenance Enforcement Acceleration

27 Apr 2026 | Written question Department for Work and Pensions Context · primary home: Child Maintenance Service leg… linked

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing the Child Maintenance Service to issue a deduction from earnings order rather

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing the Child Maintenance Service to issue a deduction from earnings order rather than a deduction of earnings request …

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12 Sep 2025 | Committee report linked

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Department for Education (DfE), HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) on improving family court services for children.1

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Department for Education (DfE), HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support …

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27 Apr 2023 | Committee report linked

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 …

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27 Apr 2023 | Committee report linked

For many receiving parents child maintenance payments are vital to avoiding or at least stymying the effects of hardship but enforcement is currently slow and often ineffective. We have heard that, while enforcement on Collect and Pay has improved, for many receiving parents enforcement remains ineffective in securing maintenance. We support the aims of the Child Support (Enforcement) Bill to allow for more timely enforcement of maintenance payments and regard effective enforcement as remaini...

For many receiving parents child maintenance payments are vital to avoiding or at least stymying the effects of hardship but enforcement is currently slow and often ineffective. We have heard that, while enforcement on Collect and Pay has improved, for …

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27 Apr 2023 | Committee report linked

Competing priorities for the Universal Credit system, specifically work on fraud and error and the automation of processes to allow the expansion of the move to Universal Credit, mean the Department has not undertaken work to implement capability in the system to process partial deductions for child maintenance in the Universal Credit system. The Government should confirm that it plans to implement partial deductions for child maintenance, where this ranks in priority for work on the system a...

Competing priorities for the Universal Credit system, specifically work on fraud and error and the automation of processes to allow the expansion of the move to Universal Credit, mean the Department has not undertaken work to implement capability in the …

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27 Apr 2023 | Committee report linked

Child maintenance currently ranks low on the priority list for Universal Credit deductions at twelfth, below deductions for DWP debt, such as advance payments. We disagree that pursuing such debt should hold a higher priority than child maintenance. Deductions for child maintenance should take higher priority than deductions for the payment of debt owed to the Government. Deductions for child maintenance should take higher priority than deductions for the payment of debt owed to the Governmen...

Child maintenance currently ranks low on the priority list for Universal Credit deductions at twelfth, below deductions for DWP debt, such as advance payments. We disagree that pursuing such debt should hold a higher priority than child maintenance. Deductions for …

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27 Apr 2023 | Committee report linked

We strongly support the aims of the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Bill, which would allow domestic abuse cases to skip Direct Pay and move straight to Collect and Pay. We welcome the Government’s support for that legislation. In response to this Report, the Government should set out the intended timetable for commencing the provisions in the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Bill, should it be passed in the 2022–23 Session of Parliament.

We strongly support the aims of the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Bill, which would allow domestic abuse cases to skip Direct Pay and move straight to Collect and Pay. We welcome the Government’s support for that legislation. In response …

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22 Jun 2022 | Committee report linked

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 ...

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 …

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22 Jun 2022 | Committee report linked

Take-up of the Department’s CMS scheme is substantially lower than it expected. The Department estimated that 18% of separated families used the CMS scheme in 2019– 20, compared to its expectation of 33% by 2019.14 In 2021, the Department found that 49% of non-resident parents and 35% of parents with care without any arrangements wanted to change this. This suggests that there may be 500,000 non-resident parents and 350,000 parents with care (equivalent to around 60% of receiving parents on t...

Take-up of the Department’s CMS scheme is substantially lower than it expected. The Department estimated that 18% of separated families used the CMS scheme in 2019– 20, compared to its expectation of 33% by 2019.14 In 2021, the Department found …

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22 Jun 2022 | Committee report linked

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 raising concerns, especially when they might not be in a position to do so. We were particularly concerned to hear of cases where parents reported that their relationship with the other parent had deteriorated as a result of them ...

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 …

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22 Jun 2022 | Committee report linked

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 than 90% of ongoing maintenance due in the quarter ending March 2016 to around half (49%) in the quarter ending September 2021. The Department has also sped up some of its internal processes designed to enforce compliance. Despite this, many ...

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 …

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22 Jun 2022 | Committee report linked

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 paying parents on Collect & Pay with ongoing maintenance arrangements who had not contributed for more than six months were being dealt with by the Department’s Enforcement Team.51 Many of the Department’s enforcement processes are set out in legisl...

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 …

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22 Jun 2022 | Committee report linked

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 among the strongest in the world”, including the power to suspend driving licenses and passports, and in the most extreme cases prison sentences.55 Between January 2020 and September 2021 in England and Wales, the Department secured six suspe...

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 …

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22 Jun 2022 | Committee report linked

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 £440 million as at October 2021.66 We therefore asked the Department how it planned to address the increasing arrears balance within the scheme. The Department told us that “a lot of it is already in payment” and it is “not giving up on getting all of it”.67 Ho...

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 …

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22 Jun 2022 | Written evidence linked

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 62% of those with arrears as at March 2021 .Alongside making enforcement more challenging, we received written evidence from a number of non-resident parents who told us about distress and hardship they had experienced being asked for amounts they considered ...

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 …

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22 Jun 2022 | Written evidence Context · primary home: Child Maintenance Service leg… linked

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 unpaid maintenance debt on the CSA schemes. The Department reduced the historic CSA debt relating to unpaid maintenance by £2.6 billion between December 2018 and March 2021 after deciding to largely write it off.64 Gingerbread, in its written evidence to us, told that it reg...

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 …

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18 Nov 2020 | Committee report linked

As at 31 March 2020, the Department was owed £5.3 billion from benefit overpayments, benefit advances and Tax Credits debt. This number continues to increase rapidly. As at 31 March 2020, the Department was owed: benefit overpayments of £2.6 billion; benefit advances of £1.0 billion; and Tax Credits debt of £1.8 billion. This represents a significant annual increase of 39% (£1.5 billion) on the £3.8 billion owed as at 31 March 2019, and the amount owed to the Department is expected to increas...

As at 31 March 2020, the Department was owed £5.3 billion from benefit overpayments, benefit advances and Tax Credits debt. This number continues to increase rapidly. As at 31 March 2020, the Department was owed: benefit overpayments of £2.6 billion; …

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18 Nov 2020 | Committee report linked

Evidence suggests that the amounts claimants owe from benefit overpayments, benefit advances and Tax Credits are all likely to increase further in 2020–21. The Department temporarily suspended most debt recovery in March 2020 and reintroduced the recovery of new overpayments in late September.55 With recovery action paused and a surge in new claims at a time when fraud and error controls had been relaxed, it is very likely amounts owed from benefit overpayments will have risen. The amounts du...

Evidence suggests that the amounts claimants owe from benefit overpayments, benefit advances and Tax Credits are all likely to increase further in 2020–21. The Department temporarily suspended most debt recovery in March 2020 and reintroduced the recovery of new overpayments …

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