New research sheds light on broken child maintenance system

Anti-poverty campaigners One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS) and Fife Gingerbread, and the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) Scotland are calling for a reform of the UK Child Maintenance System that could deliver an additional £2.7 billion to two million of the UK’s poorest children (equivalent to £200 million to 100,000 children in Scotland).

In a new report, Better for Everyone: a new vision for child maintenance, the organisations highlight more than one million separated families across the UK have no child maintenance agreement. This means around two million children may be relying on just one parent to pay for essentials like food, clothes, household bills, school uniforms and out of school care.

The report says the complexity of the current system and the use of fees are putting growing numbers of families off from using it. It accuses the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) of failing both ‘paying’ and ‘receiving’ parents, leaving children to bear the cost. It says that for the most vulnerable families, including those affected by domestic abuse, the system can be impossible to navigate. The report calls for fees to be scrapped and the introduction of a much simpler and safer system in the form of a universal ‘child maintenance payment platform’. The organisations are encouraging people to sign an open letter to the Prime Minster, calling for urgent reform of the child maintenance system.

Satwat Rehman, chief executive of One Parent Families Scotland said:

The UK’s disastrous child maintenance system has been failing children for too long. Children in single parent families are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty as those in two-parent households. Child maintenance isn’t a luxury, it’s a lifeline. It’s about children’s rights and parents’ responsibilities. For too long, single parents have been let down by the CMS, especially in cases involving domestic abuse. Our report sets out a bold vision for a child maintenance system that is improved to the extent that all children who are entitled to financial support receive it and, by virtue of this, are lifted out of poverty.

David Hawkey, Senior Research Fellow at IPPR Scotland, said:

For years the government has argued that its involvement in families’ child maintenance arrangements is bad for children. It’s time to end this self-fulfilling prophecy. The CMS must transform from a neglected service, available only once maintenance arrangements have broken down, to a modern system that works for all separated families. Our proposal would reduce stigma and improve transparency, safety and access. Extending the reach of child maintenance should be a key plank of any government’s child poverty strategy.

Laura Millar, CEO of Fife Gingerbread, added:

Over two years, Fife Gingerbread has engaged with 160 households where 85% had no arrangement in place when we met them. We’ve supported parents across a spectrum of cases: from simple signposting to complex issues like domestic abuse, unpaid arrears and tribunal procedures. This has led, so far, to over £100k financial gain for 40 households in Fife alone, and 87% have consistent payments after a year. We’ve seen what’s possible when parents are supported, but for this to work for every family, the system itself needs to change.