Gingerbread is calling on the government to fix the CMS. Will you join our campaign to ensure that children get the financial support they need?

Today we’ve published our new report on the impact of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) on separated families. It’s based on extensive feedback both from paying parents and parents with care. It shows that the CMS isn’t achieving its purpose, and too many children aren’t receiving the maintenance they deserve.

Problems with using the Child Maintenance Service

Single parents – both those paying and receiving maintenance – have told us that the way the CMS works can contribute to worsening relationships between separated parents, causing significant stress on both sides. Worryingly the service is also failing victim-survivors of domestic abuse – with parents telling us that involvement of CMS had led to an increase in abusive behaviour. 

Difficulties with the CMS mean that too many children are going without.

Parents told our research team about the impact of not receiving maintenance:

‘There was something the other day… I didn’t have any change… and he went, ‘You can always take some money from my money box’, and it just broke my heart.’

Parent with care, no maintenance arrangement

‘[My daughter] saw a few things as we were going around the supermarket. I said, ‘If you want it, put it in the trolley’. She was like, ‘No, no. I don’t want to’. I felt really guilty… Obviously, when we were getting his money, I could buy her more treats.’

Parent with care, Collect and Pay

Single-parent households are almost twice as likely to be living in poverty as couple-parent households. We know that poverty has many causes and there’s no single solution. But there’s clear evidence that when child maintenance is paid in full it has a significant impact in lifting children out of poverty.  

Make your voice heard – write to your MP 

The Labour government has committed to tackling child poverty. Gingerbread is clear that reforming the CMS must be a central part of their plans.

We want to make sure all MPs are aware of this issue. So we’re calling on single parents to join our campaign. MPs can help us bring about change by using parliamentary mechanisms like tabling questions, speaking in debates and writing a letter to the Minister.

Will you ask your MP to support our calls to fix the CMS?

Report findings: 

Child maintenance is designed to cover a child’s living costs in situations where one parent doesn’t live with the child. The CMS exists to support this process where parents can’t reach a private arrangement.

But our research shows that the current system is failing. A lack of enforcement and unhelpful processes mean that children are going without.

• 41% of separated families have no maintenance arrangement in place at all
• 52% of parents with care who are not getting the maintenance they are entitled to are struggling to pay essential bills
• 49% of parents with care who are not getting the maintenance they are entitled to are not able to buy clothes, shoes or school uniform for their children
• 61% of parents with care said the CMS were reluctant to use enforcement powers
• 45% of parents with care who have experienced domestic abuse said that involvement of the CMS had led to an increase in abusive behaviour.

These experiences are so common that many people are reluctant to use the CMS. This leads to children going without and risks greater levels of poverty among single-parent households. 

Our key recommendations: 

Our report shows that parents want, as a priority:  

• Dedicated named caseworkers. This would mean that parents don’t have to keep retelling their story, and ensure issues are understood and followed up
• A means to contact the service digitally. This could reduce the stress of long waiting times on the phone and increase confidence that the right things were being communicated both ways   
• Actions to step up on enforcement, to better assess income and to close loopholes that allow non-resident parents to avoid payments  
• A transformation in training for CMS staff in domestic abuse and for the service to become trauma-informed.

Gingerbread head of policy and campaigns Sarah Lambert says:

‘These steps could improve the experience of using the service, and increase the numbers of children receiving the maintenance that they need. We also believe that there is scope for additional reform of both the CMS and the wider ‘ecosystem’ supporting families and separated parents. It’s clear that bold action is needed if the government is to meet its ambitions both on child poverty and halving the level of violence against women and girls in the next decade.’