Children: Maintenance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to increase the powers of (a) enforcement and (b) collection of the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Andrew Western
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to ensuring separated parents support their children financially, taking robust enforcement action against those who do not.
If someone chooses not to pay their maintenance themselves, the CMS has administrative powers which means CMS officials can deduct maintenance directly from a paying parent’s wages, from their bank account, or from their benefits.
The CMS has a range of strong enforcement powers that can be used against those who consistently refuse to meet their obligations to provide financial support to their children including forcing the sale of a property.
The Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 proposed regulations to support the introduction of administrative liability orders (ALOs), removing the requirement to obtain a court issued liability order. Introducing this process should enable the CMS to take faster action against those paying parents who actively avoid their responsibilities and get money to children more quickly. We are working with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service and the Scottish Government to establish a process for implementing ALOs and plan to introduce regulations to Parliament by the end of this year.
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