New inquiry into children in poverty and how DWP can improve Child Maintenance Service launches

The Work and Pensions Committee is continuing its work on children in poverty with an inquiry into the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) and the financial support arrangements for children and young people in separated families across the UK.

The inquiry will explore how the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) might improve the Child Maintenance Service to better support children in poverty and examine the barriers parents face when trying to access its support as well as how the system interacts with wider social security, including Universal Credit.

Reforms in 2012 were aimed at encouraging families where one of the parents does not live with the child to create their own arrangements for the payment of support and reduce the use of the UK Government service.

However, the Work and Pensions Committee said that while family-based arrangements have increased and use of the Child Maintenance Service has fallen, the estimated proportion of separated families without any arrangements in place has risen from 25% in 2011/12 to 44% in 2019/20.

In March, the National Audit Office published a report on child maintenance calling on the DWP to do more to ensure families could easily use the CMS.

In 2019, the Social Security Advisory Committee recommended that the UK Government publish a strategy for separated parents and their children in respect to the social security system.

The Committee will be looking to find out:

• How many children in the UK live in separated families What proportion of these children are living in poverty
• What prevents parents from establishing family-based arrangements
• What barriers are there for parents when trying to access support from Child Maintenance Service
• How can DWP improve the Child Maintenance Service to better support children living in poverty

Commenting on the inquiry, Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said: “The dramatic rise over the last decade in the number of separated parents with no child maintenance arrangements in place means some young people from such families risk living in poverty.

“Families are being encouraged to make their own arrangements, but there is still a role for the Child Maintenance Service to help separated parents make the best provision for their children.

“The design of the CMS and the way it is functioning seems to be hindering many in doing so.”

He added: “Our inquiry will look at how to remove barriers to establishing child maintenance arrangements, and examine how the CMS and wider social security system can work better to ensure children from separated families have proper support growing up.”

The inquiry follows on from the Committee’s previous children in poverty work on measurements and targets and the experiences of families with no recourse to public funds.

Read the call for evidence to find out more detail about the inquiry, here.

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