Yesterday evening (17th August), Gingerbread’s CEO Abigail Wood, featured in BBC Panorama’s investigation into the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) and the impact it is having on the families who rely on it. You can watch the episode here.

At Gingerbread, we know the CMS is failing too many families. For years, we have campaigned for a service that is fair, effective and works for everyone who has to use it, especially single-parent families and their children.

The CMS has the potential to play a vital role in reducing child poverty. But persistent failings within the system mean too many children miss out on the financial support they are entitled to, while victim-survivors of domestic abuse and their children remain vulnerable to economic abuse.

Gingerbread has campaigned about the CMS and its failings for many years, and this investigation marks an important milestone in bringing the experiences of single-parent families into the national conversation.

Gingerbread CEO, Abigail Wood, says:

“Child maintenance is money owed to children. The Child Maintenance Service should be ensuring maintenance payments are fairly calculated, paid in full, and on time.

The CMS is failing in its duty, and there is now more than £790 million in unpaid child maintenance arrears. This is money that should have been paid to children to help protect them from hardship.

A properly functioning service, where children receive the full maintenance they are entitled to, could reduce child poverty by 25%. We need a fair system that works for children, receiving parents and paying parents, and it must be properly resourced.”

While the government has announced some changes to the CMS, there is still no clear plan or timetable for delivering meaningful reform. Single-parent families cannot afford to wait. Every month the government delays reforming the CMS is another month that children are going without the support they deserve.

Help us fix the CMS

If you want to see a Child Maintenance Service that works for children and families, you can help by writing to your MP and asking them to support reform and meet with us.

We’ve made it quick and easy to contact your MP.