Gingerbread’s response to recent press coverage on the CMS

Posted 28 July 2026

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is failing. It lets down single parents and their children. Gingerbread has consistently campaigned for a CMS that is fair and effective for everyone, particularly children.

Our criticism of the CMS is based on clear evidence. We know that:

• 96% of non-resident parents and 72% of parents with care said that their experience of dealing with the CMS made their mental health and wellbeing worse
• 93% of non-resident parents and 58% of parents with care said that their experience of the CMS made their relationship with the other parent worse
• 77% of parents with care using the CMS had experienced domestic abuse from the other parent.

The CMS is an important service. It has the power to reduce child poverty in the UK; where it’s received, child maintenance cuts the child poverty rate by 25%.

However, recent data shows that a quarter of children who should have received maintenance this year received nothing at all. Persistent failings within the system mean that too many children miss out on vital financial support, while victim-survivors and their children remain vulnerable to economic abuse.

Gingerbread continues to push for reform

The government has announced major reforms to the service, including the removal of Direct Pay and a reduction in fees. Gingerbread has welcomed these changes, which have the potential to improve the service for many users. It is now time for these reforms to be brought forward. The government must also go further to deliver a service that truly works for single-parent families and to unlock the CMS’s full potential to reduce child poverty. Gingerbread will continue to push for change until this happens.

Our CEO, Abigail Wood, recently gave evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee as part of its review of the CMS, highlighting the challenges faced by both parents with care and non-resident parents when using the service, as well as the recommendations set out in our #FixTheCMS report. Earlier this year, we also launched a joint briefing with Surviving Economic Abuse and Women’s Aid, examining the experiences of victim-survivors of domestic abuse using the CMS, and the support and safeguards needed to better protect them.

Gingerbread also provides the secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Single-Parent Families, which has been examining the CMS through an ongoing programme of work, and the next meeting is being planned for October. Behind the scenes, we continue to engage with parliamentarians and the government to press for the reforms that single-parent families urgently need.

If you would like to stay up to date on our #FixtheCMS campaign and opportunities to get involved, sign up to our mailing list.

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