FNF oral evidence on Child Maintenance to the House of Commons Work and Pension Committee
In May 2022 the Work and Pensions Committee launched an inquiry into Children in Poverty and Child Maintenance. FNF submitted a report in response to the Committee's call for written evidence which was published in August (see here as a pdf download or here in HTML).
Key messages to the Committee were that Child Maintenance (CM) fails to address child poverty as barely 3% of children living in poverty are lifted out of it by CMS with very little prospect of that changing given that most parents in arrears are simply unable to afford the assessments made by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), because the formula used to calculate it does not include a basic living allowance for the paying parent. We also shared with the Committee your experiences that you shared with us in our surveys.
On the back of our submission the Committee invited us to give oral evidence alongside Save the Children, Gingerbread and One Parent Families Scotland. The Committee also heard evidence from the Centre for Social Justice. You can read the transcript of this evidence here in a pdf download or here in HTML. You can also watch these proceedings in parliament here (or by clicking on the images below). Our evidence starts at approximately 10:37.
The Committee also held an oral evidence with academics on 19th October. This included evidence from Dr Christine Davies, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at Royal Holloway University of London. Dr Davies has vast experience of analysing available data relating to CMS, the unaffordable CM assessments produced by the current scheme and the counter-productive interactions between CM and Universal Credit. Dr Davies' evidence can be found evidence is here as a pdf download and here in HTML. It can also be viewed here. The National Audit Office, were also invited to give their evidence that can be downloaded here as pdf or viewed in HTML here.
The Committee's work continues and further evidence from relevant experts seems probable before finalising their report. It seems likely that this will be the fifth authoritative report since 2019 to identify fundamental issues for affordability of Child Maintenance by a substantial portion of parents from whom it is demanded by law. FNF submitted evidence to each of these calls for evidence during this time and it has undoubtedly helped to convince each investigative body of the fundamental flaws in the system that remain unaddressed. Our evidence has of course not only highlghted the unaffordable nature of many assessments, but also the consequences of this - an increase in family conflict with disastrous consequences for the heath of paying parents and to children when such conflict sills over into disputes over child arrangements.
'10 years after reforms designed to improve child maintenance, the Department for Work & Pensions is achieving no more for children of separated families than under the previous, discredited Child Support Agency (CSA).’ - House of Commons Public Accounts Committee
Four key reports identifying affordability issues with Child Maintenance
CSJ - The Hidden Parent Poverty Trap: Child Maintenance and Universal Credit – March 2019
SSAC Occasional Paper 22: Separated parents and the social security system – 22 October 2019
National Audit Office – Child Maintenance Report – 3 March 2022
The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts has published its report on Child Maintenance - 22 June 2022
ACTION
The difficulty is that, whilst the narrative of what the issues are with CMS has significantly changed the majority of the solutions that we and all the reports identify require primary legislation. However, the Government has not shown any appetite for prioritising such legislation or to consider having an overarching strategy for separated parents, as recommended by us and the Social Security Advisory Committee. So what is needed is for you to share your experience with your MP, draw their attention to these reports and the evidence so far submitted to the Work and Pensions Committee and ask them to approach relevant ministers to prioritise legislation to create a coherent strategy for separated families and to commit to reform of Child Maintenance and other child related benefits that currently undermine the best interests of children and shared care and significantly drive damaging family conflict.
You can find contact details for your MP here.
Further Comments
Most difficulties with child maintenance stem from a ‘winner takes it all’ formula that is often unaffordable and undermines shared parenting (one parent receives child related benefits and child maintenance, irrespective of income, even if care is split fairly evenly).
The Committee of Public Accounts reported that “More than two-thirds of Paying Parents on Collect & Pay and over a quarter of those on Direct Pay say the payments are not affordable.”
Once these concerns are addressed the remaining issues will diminish as they are a consequence of the failure of existing legislation.
There is now a public health crisis for children of separated families. There is a need for focus on effective child support mechanisms, education, Early Intervention to keep people out of court and out of CMS, integration with other departments such as Education, etc as identified in our paper ‘A Strategy for Separated Families’, Please share this with your MP too and invite them to get in touch with us to discuss these issues further.
8th November 2022
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