The Government is conducting a review of the child maintenance calculation to make sure it is fit for purpose. This includes updating the underlying research and ensuring it is fair for both parents and encourages willing and able compliance.

The outcome of the review and next steps will be announced in due course.

The child maintenance calculation is designed to be fair and proportionate and broadly represent an amount that the paying parent would spend on the child as if they were still living with them. The calculation takes the paying parent’s gross income into account – regardless of whether that income comes from earnings or benefits. Where a paying parent earns under £100 per week, or receives certain benefits including Universal Credit, they pay a flat rate of £7 per week. In those few instances where someone is eligible for the flat rate but has other income, that can be captured by means of a variation.

The Department has recently conducted a programme of strategic work to review the child maintenance calculation. The focus of the review is to explore options to update the calculation to reflect modern societal and economic changes, with the aim of making it fair, affordable and responsive to parents’ circumstances, but importantly, to avoid introducing complexities to the system. A consultation on proposed changes is planned for late 2025.

The child maintenance calculation is designed to be fair for the paying parent, while ensuring they contribute a significant proportion of their income to support their children.

A banding system ensures that the very lowest earners and those on prescribed benefits pay a flat rate of £7 per week. Those that can afford to make a bigger contribution do so at a rate that reflects what they earn.

For child maintenance calculation purposes, a paying parent who is in receipt of Universal Credit and also has earned income will not be considered as being in receipt of benefit. Their liability to pay child maintenance will therefore be calculated based upon the income they receive.

The department is reviewing the calculation to make sure it is fit for purpose. This has included updating the underlying research and considering how we ensure the calculation reflects current and future societal trends.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to ensuring separated parents support their children financially, taking robust enforcement action against those who do not. Where parents fail to pay their child maintenance, the Service will not hesitate to use its enforcement powers, including deductions from earnings orders, removal of driving licences, disqualification from holding a passport, and committal to prison.

If a paying parent is in receipts of benefits, the CMS can set up a deduction from the benefit to collect ongoing maintenance, or arrears in the case of Collect and Pay. The CMS is able to deduct £8.40 a week towards ongoing maintenance or arrears from certain prescribed benefits. Deductions towards arrears and ongoing maintenance are not taken at the same time. Arrears deductions are taken only after ongoing liability has been satisfied.

Where parents frequently change employment, the CMS can use alternative powers such as deducting child maintenance directly from their bank account.

To allow enforcement action to be taken where appropriate, the CMS can issue legal notifications and documents to a client’s last known or notified address. The CMS utilises a wide range of information sources to determine, on the balance of probabilities, which is the correct last known or last notified address.

Where parents frequently change employment, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) can use alternative powers such as deducting child maintenance directly from their bank account. The CMS has a range of strong enforcement options that are designed to get money flowing quickly, prevent the build-up of arrears and ensure children get the financial support they deserve. Upon changing employer, the child maintenance liability will remain unaffected unless there is also a change to income which is greater than 25%.

The Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 delivered primary legislation to accelerate the enforcement process. The changes seek to introduce a simpler administrative process to obtain a liability order against those paying parents who actively avoid their responsibilities, enabling the CMS to take faster enforcement action. We will monitor the effectiveness of this.

The CMS has a relatively low percentage of unpaid maintenance. Only 8% of the total maintenance due to be paid since the start of the CMS remains to be collected through the collect & pay service. This was as high as 17% in March 2015.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The Department publishes quarterly Child Maintenance Service (CMS) statistics, with the latest statistics available to the end of December 2022, here.

Monthly statistics on ‘People on Universal Credit’ including an employment indicator are available on StatXplore here.

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found here.

The child maintenance calculation is initially based on paying parent’s historic income information received directly from HM Revenue & Customs for the latest complete tax year.

If historic income is not available, or a paying parent’s actual income is at least 25% different from the historic income figure then current income can be used. This is based on evidence from a wide range of credible sources which ensures liabilities remain fair and based on accurate income information. The liability is reviewed annually or at either parents’ request if the income changes by at least 25%.

Due to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) policies, we do not have the staffing numbers for 2011 so we have attached the earliest figures we have. The numbers are shown as Full Time Equivalent (FTE) and Headcount (HC).

There are some caveats around these numbers as in 2016 and earlier there were corporate functions (such as HR and finance) included within Child Maintenance Group and these were later subsumed within DWP and there were also some changes to the HR system and how staffing levels were calculated.

It is worth noting that the 2021 staffing figures also reflects that we had in the interim closed down our two older schemes (CSCS and CSA) therefore significantly reducing our caseload.

Child Maintenance Group

Aug-12 Mar-13 Mar-16 Mar-21 Oct-21

FTE 7618.83 7400.65 7433.29 3971.66 3626.66

HC 8708 8503 8738 4791 4368

Child Maintenance Group policy allows for its Financial Investigation Unit to attempt to try and establish compliance in all cases before looking to see if the case may be prosecutable.

If the employer does not comply immediately a warning of Interview Under Caution and possible prosecution is sent. It is only after this notice expires that a notice that we intend to carry out an Interview Under Caution is sent, which would signal prosecution even if the employer then complies.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS), introduced a Financial Investigations Unit (FIU) in April 2014. They are responsible for investigating allegations of criminal or civil activities that negatively impact the correct amount of child maintenance being calculated. The FIU deal with a variety of different cases such as, allegations of fraud when attending or supplying a DNA test and allegations that the Paying Parent (PP) has failed to report their true level of income.

The FIU deploy a range of different investigative techniques that are tailored to the allegation and circumstances of the case. This involves gathering independent evidence from a range of sources and where applicable working with stakeholders such as Counter Fraud and Compliance Directorate (CFCD) in joint operations. Once an investigation is concluded, where a discrepancy in income is found, the CMS will recalculate the amount of maintenance due to be paid.

When a payment has not been received from an employer through a Deduction from Earnings Order (DEO), the Child Maintenance Service receive an alert and takes prompt action to investigate.

Account Managers and enforcement colleagues engage with employers to ensure they understand the DEO process and legal implications of not implementing the order, which could result in prosecutions or fines.

We have also introduced a new on-line service specifically for employers to ensure money deducted through DEOs is promptly allocated and paid to customers.