Child Maintenance Service: Reform

Margaret Ferrier Excerpts

Thursday 19th May 2022 Westminster Hall

[Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Ind)]

It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Rees. I congratulate the hon. Member for Motherwell and Wishaw (Marion Fellows) on securing a debate on a service that is not often seen as a priority despite the essential issue that it should tackle.

When the Child Maintenance Service replaced the Child Support Agency in 2012, it was done under the guise of creating a more efficient system that would foster more collaboration between parents and ensure that children are properly supported financially. The Government are bringing forward further legislative reform to the service, and although that reform is absolutely necessary and long overdue, it must be done right. We cannot let another decade pass with problems going unaddressed. Parents have to pay to access the service, but the level of satisfaction is appallingly low.

In Scotland, about 92% of lone parents are single mothers. The poor accessibility of child maintenance is intrinsically gendered. Thirty-nine per cent. of children who live in single-parent families live in poverty, which is much higher than the average for all Scottish children. Research shows that if child maintenance were being paid as it should be, some 60% of those children would be lifted out of poverty. There is no excuse for that not to be immediately addressed.

In September last year, 59% of new claimants were recognised as victims of domestic abuse, as the hon. Lady said. Those women and men—they are overwhelmingly women—have been through some unimaginable things. We live in a society that tends to blame victims, whether consciously or not. We ask, “Why doesn’t she leave him? Why does she allow it to happen? Why isn’t she doing the right thing to protect her kids?” In most cases, domestic abuse happens slowly, so a victim might not realise it is happening until it is too late. There are so many barriers to leaving such situations, but they would not occur to someone who had not been through it.

When a victim does leave and manages to get the children out as well, she is further victimised by a system that allows her ex-partner to continue to exert his control without consequence. She is left to pick up the pieces and become the sole provider to children they both created. Too many see child maintenance as some unjust tax that they have to pay to fund their ex’s lifestyle. They do not see it for what it is: their financial responsibility towards ensuring that their children have what they need to survive.

My office is no stranger to CMS complaints, and each complaint is as frustrating as the next, with the same problems and the same inadequate response. Most commonly, constituents come to me after receiving a mandatory reconsideration notice prompted by a request from their ex-partner to the CMS to lower payments. Sometimes, those payments are not even being made when a parent requests such a review. The notice invites the custodial parent to submit any evidence that they have in their favour. It does not explain on what grounds the reconsideration has been requested, however, and if the receiving parent does not know what the paying parent’s argument is, how can they provide evidence to counter it?

At the moment, I have two almost identical open cases that are completely unrelated. They both concern single mothers to two young sons and ex-partners who were working full-time until child maintenance was calculated. In a successful effort to avoid payment, the fathers went under the radar by claiming universal credit while working full-time for cash in hand. Both women have extensive evidence of that, which they have shared with the CMS and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs only to be told, “Sorry—nothing we can do.” In one of those cases, a CMS adviser even told a member of my staff over the phone that it was really frustrating and unfortunate because although my constituent had done everything right—everything she possibly could—it just would not change the outcome. That cannot be right.

I have seen parents’ statements showing that the paying parent owes them thousands in unpaid maintenance, yet the CMS has no power to address that—the same CMS that custodial parents are paying to provide that service. We have now reached a point whereby many parents do not even bother making a claim for child maintenance because it is more stress than it is worth for the pitiful amount that they will receive if they are lucky enough to receive any at all.

The National Audit Office’s March report found that there was no clear change in the number of families with functional maintenance arrangements, including those made outside the CMS. It estimated that for only one in three separated families—one third—is the agreed level of maintenance being paid in full. That is shocking. The NAO found the following:

“As at September 2021, 38,000 paying parents (around one in four) with an ongoing arrangement had not paid any maintenance on their Collect & Pay arrangement for more than three months, and 22,000 (around one in seven) had not paid for more than six months”.

The report also highlighted the issues about enforcement, and that enforcement of arrears did not necessarily impact on future compliance. There is really no consequence for avoidant parents.

Although reform of the system is of course hugely welcome, it must get to the root of the issues; it cannot be another plaster over the cracks. The DWP must be sure that it fully understands the heart of the issues, and any proposed solutions must work for the receiving parent. It is categorically wrong that the receiving parent, who already shoulders the overwhelming burden of providing for their children, is charged to use the service. One Parent Families Scotland reports that the minimum cost of raising a child in the UK is £190,000 for single-parent families. That is £30,000 higher than for couples. It is no secret that child maintenance is rarely equitable. The custodial parent will almost always pay significantly more. They should not be charged for the small amounts that they are able to recoup, especially in the worst cases. Although victims of domestic abuse are not charged the 4% on the collect and pay service, that exemption requires disclosure, which can be incredibly difficult for victims.

Ministers must also create strong cross-agency measures that change the way enforcement works, creating faster and better means of sharing intelligence and for how intelligence is then, more importantly, acted on. The CMS needs to be better resourced to respond to the needs of the parents using the service—both receiving and paying parents. I have spent a lot of time dwelling on the worst kind of avoidant parent, but there are many paying parents out there who are compliant, or would like to be, but need some adjustments. Cases need to be reviewed individually; it should not be one size fits all. Communication by the CMS in the round—both to constituents and to MPs’ offices—needs to be much, much better.

I have spent so much of my speech talking about the impact on parents. It is important to remember that at the heart of this are innocent children who are missing out, many having already been through the trauma of the breakdown of their family unit, often exacerbated by a deteriorating relationship between the parents where maintenance is an ongoing issue. I hope that the Minister and his colleagues will keep those children at the forefront of their minds when looking at the CMS and what it could do better. A child should not be living a poorer quality of life than they have to because the parent they live with cannot access the support to which the child is entitled.