Work and Pensions Committee says it will continue to press for improvements to the Child Maintenance Service following government’s response to report that rejects majority of the Committee’s recommendations

Committee Chair says failure to address long-standing and well-known problems will do little to alleviate the daily frustrations and distress encountered by many parents

The Work and Pensions Committee has said it will continue to press for improvements to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) following the government 's response to its Children in poverty: CMS report that rejects the majority of the Committee's recommendations.

Further to the Committee's April 2023 report – that concluded that efforts to reduce child poverty were being hindered by the CMS being slow and ineffective on enforcement for some parents and imposing unaffordable payments on others – the government has responded today by accepting the Committee’s recommendations on the need to change how calculations are made for determining child maintenance levels and on making it easier for parents to contact the service.

However, the government rejects the majority of the Committee's other recommendations, including in particular –

• seeking as part of any future legislative change in the CMS system, the authority to process partial deductions from universal credit for child maintenance arrears.
  
  The government's response includes that –

'Modifications regarding partial deductions would require changes to the universal credit system, which is challenging, given the need to safeguard the incomes of vulnerable customers, during the process of migration of customers onto universal credit from legacy benefits. We will ensure the legislation is amended as necessary when the change can be implemented.'

• child maintenance deductions should be moved up the priority list for universal credit deductions ahead of deductions for the payment of debts owed to the government.
  
  Rejecting the recommendation, the government advises that –

'There are no plans currently to alter the sequence by which deductions from benefits are ordered. Government debts such as benefit overpayments are only considered if there is room within the standard 25 per cent cap, after advances and third-party deductions, including Child Maintenance, have been considered.'

• producing an analysis of the reasons for the increase in the proportion of families without child maintenance arrangements –
  
  The government also rejects this recommendation, saying –

'The Department does not currently have plans to do further research into why the proportion of separated families with no arrangement has increased but will consider further analysis as part of any future policy reforms.'

• the Department should work with HMRC to enable parents with shared care to split child benefit between them –
  
  Giving reasons for rejecting the recommendation, the government says –

'It is important, especially for parents and families on lower incomes, that enough support is directed to them to prevent child poverty. Therefore, payment of support to the person with priority of entitlement for a child is the most appropriate way to deal with the majority of families with children.

Splitting child benefit between parents with shared care arrangements would also introduce additional operational burdens into the child benefit system. This is likely to result in complexity for claimants, and costs for the Exchequer. Splitting payments between parents would also be especially complex to implement, as shared care arrangements often vary over time.'

• the government should come forward with proposals for updating maintenance levels and thresholds as a priority –
  
  While not rejecting the recommendation outright, the government response advises –

'We are reviewing the evidence on calculating the additional costs associated with children. We are also undertaking secondary analysis of survey data to see how the costs of children as a percentage of household income has changed over the past two decades.

Any changes to the child maintenance calculation would require primary legislation, so if the review indicates that changes are necessary, this will be explored at the earliest opportunity.'

Commenting on the government's response, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee Sir Stephen Timms said today –

'The government’s response to our Report will do little to alleviate the frustrations and distress encountered on a daily basis by many parents with experience of the Child Maintenance Service.

While there is some commitment to improving customer service, action to address long-standing and well-known problems with compliance, reduce fraud and error and make fees fairer, falls short of what is needed to make the service an effective vehicle for tackling child poverty. The Committee will continue to press the government on the changes needed to ensure children are getting the payments they are entitled to.'

For more information, see Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service: Work and Pensions Committee publishes Government response to Report from parliament.uk