This week, we released shocking new research that shows one in 10 mothers experienced an abuser refusing to pay child support or who paid it unreliably in the previous year.
We know from our work with victim-survivors that perpetrators weaponised the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) as a tool for economic abuse, often withholding or attaching strings to payments around key moments, like the summer holidays, to cause maximum harm.
Abusers leave many victim-survivors struggling to provide the basics for their children when they refuse to pay the full maintenance that their children are entitled to. We hear all the time about victim-survivors being forced to cover these shortfalls by making huge sacrifices, like taking on debt or going without essentials for themselves, like food or heating.
As part of our new three-year strategy, we are committed to working alongside survivors to drive much-needed change to ensure children get the child support they are entitled to – and need – to lift them out of poverty.
Recently, the Government published its response to the consultation on improving the collection and transfer of CMS payments. While we welcome many of the proposed reforms, our work with victim-survivors shows that the system still falls short of offering the protection and support they urgently need.
Below, we explore the key reforms proposed and set out how we’ll be working alongside victim-survivors to make sure these are strengthened.
Moving all CMS payment arrangements to Collect and Pay
What we welcome
Currently, parents accessing the CMS can use either Direct Pay, where the CMS calculates the maintenance amount and paying parents make payments directly to the receiving parent or Collect and Pay, where CMS both calculates the maintenance amount and transfers payments between parents. Victim-survivors are often dependent on Collect and Pay services to safely manage maintenance payments because it is too unsafe for them to share their bank details with an abusive ex-partner.
The proposed consolidation of the CMS to a Collect and Pay only service – where CMS manages payments between paying and receiving parents – will make it safer and easier for victim-survivors to receive child support payments as well as give the CMS greater oversight of paying parents who are making unreliable or non-payments.
What we want to see
Safe transition: The proposed three-month transition period currently lacks safeguards for victim-survivors, especially those who didn’t apply to the CMS to receive support with child maintenance. Without these safeguards, abusers could coerce survivors into unsafe informal arrangements. The CMS must work with victim-survivors, SEA, and other experts to ensure this transition is survivor-led and risk-informed.
Fees
What we welcome
Currently parents accessing the Collect and Pay Service must pay a 4% transfer fee for each payment. The Government’s commitment to reduce the fee from a 4% to 2% for parents is a small improvement.
What we want to see
Remove all fees for victim-survivors and compliant parents: The 2% transfer fee unfairly penalises victim-survivors who have no choice but to access the Collect and Pay service to safely make child maintenance arrangements. This fee will take lifesaving cash from children’s pockets, which they are dependent on for their basic needs. In its response, the government cited concerns about the pressure placed on victim-survivors to provide evidence of their experience to access an exemption. However, we suggest that this pressure could be alleviated if the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) adopted a trauma-informed approach to the evidence threshold for domestic abuse that does not require victim-survivors to provide overly detailed information about their experiences.
Get Help Making Arrangements online tool
What we welcome
The government has proposed how the ‘Get Help Making Arrangements’ online tool could be improved to help parents decide what child support arrangements best meet their families’ needs, including options for family-based arrangements (with no CMS involvement) or CMS options.
What we want to see
A co-designed tool: Currently, the online tool promotes private arrangements first, without adequately warning of the potential risks of these arrangements in cases of domestic, including economic, abuse. As a result, survivors may not realise they can seek Collect and Pay to safely make maintenance arrangements. We recommend that the DWP work with SEA and other specialists to ensure this tool clearly defines domestic, including economic, abuse and the support offered by the CMS to victim-survivors.
Online calculator
What we welcome
Victim-survivors repeatedly tell us that abusers routinely avoid maintenance payments for their children by not disclosing their earnings. We welcome the Government’s proposal to use HMRC data to calculate income to avoid opportunities for the non-disclosure of earnings.
What we want to see
Close loopholes: The CMS must take further steps to remove opportunities for the non-disclosure of income, through means such as ‘cash in hand’ and pensions. Currently, the government response puts privacy concerns above the need to have an accurate picture of all income to ensure children receive the support they are owed.
Non-compliance
What we welcome
We’re pleased to see greater clarity regarding how non-compliance is defined and the commitment to include a 20% fee for non-compliant parents accessing the Collect and Pay service.
What we want to see
Clearer definition: By failing to address all circumstances, the current definition of compliance creates opportunities for abusers to play the system and avoid the 20% fee. We strongly encourage the CMS to work with us and victim-survivors to identify and close any loopholes that could currently be used by abusers to withhold payments without consequences. Without a clear definition of compliance that allows abuse to be identified, the system falls apart.
We also encourage the DWP to reconsider exempting paying parents in receipt of benefits from the 20% fee. Provided maintenance calculations are accurate, all parents should be held accountable for non-compliance.
Training
What we welcome
The Government’s commitment to continue providing domestic abuse training to DWP staff.
What we want to see
We are concerned that the current training offered to DWP staff does not adequately reflect the experiences of economic abuse victim-survivors, and how abusers weaponise the CMS as a form of coercive and controlling behaviour.
We strongly encourage the DWP to use domestic and economic abuse training developed and delivered by specialist organisations to ensure it fully reflects the experiences of victim-survivors and addresses how the CMS is used as a tool for post-separation abuse. The DWP should also invest in specialist training to ensure teams can respond effectively and safely to the needs of victim-survivors.
Single, named caseworker for victim-survivors of domestic abuse
What we welcome
We support the provision of a specialist named caseworker service for domestic abuse victim-survivors.
What we want to see
Within its consultation response, the Government proposes that this service will be offered only to the “most complex cases” of domestic abuse. We want to see greater clarity on how the CMS will define the “most complex” cases that will access these services to ensure victim-survivors are not denied support. We also want to see that the specialist team is resourced adequately to meet the needs of victim-survivors, so that they are not pressured to turn victim-survivors away.
Final thoughts
The CMS has the potential to be a powerful tool for safeguarding children and lifting them out of poverty. However, this can only be achieved if reforms are properly resourced, enforcement is prioritised, and proposed changes are developed in collaboration with victim-survivors and specialists like SEA. Without taking these steps, there is a significant risk that the CMS instead remains a tool for abusers to cause victim-survivors and their children harm.
“If the Government is serious about halving violence against women and girls and ending child poverty, the CMS needs better training, stronger enforcement, and a survivor-centred approach.” — Sam Smethers, CEO, SEA
We’re urging the Government to bring forward the necessary legislation urgently and prioritise these reforms to build a safer and more effective service for all parents and children.
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