Yesterday, the Government published its response to its recent consultation on the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), outlining their plans to improve the collection and transfer of payments.  

Reflecting on the response, Sam Smethers, CEO of Surviving Economic Abuse, said: “Transforming the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is vital for victim-survivors and their children. The reforms proposed are welcome, but they don’t go far enough. For far too many children, child support is the only thing keeping them above the poverty line, yet abusers often weaponise the CMS to cause harm to survivors and prevent them from providing the basics for their children. 

“Moving all cases to Collect and Pay will protect survivors from having to share their bank details with abusers and from having to report them for non-compliance to the CMS. Holding non-compliant parents accountable with a 20% fee is also a positive step, but charging receiving parents 2% is still taking money out of children’s pockets. These changes need legislation, which the Government must prioritise and urgently bring forward. 

“If the Government is serious about halving violence against women and girls and ending child poverty, the CMS needs the resources and better joined up working with HMRC and other departments to pursue non-payments, as well as specialist training for Department of Work and Pensions and CMS staff to help them identify and respond to economic abuse. It’s the only way to ensure that abusers are stopped in their tracks and children get the support they are entitled to.” 

ENDS 

For further information or to arrange an interview with a spokesperson, please contact the Surviving Economic Abuse press office on [email protected] / 07786 073249