737,600 children covered by Child Maintenance Service arrangements
The Child Maintenance Service is the organisation governing the assessment of maintenance which is required from one parent to the other in relation to provision for minor children. The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) can initially perform an assessment and then if necessary become involved in the collection of maintenance. The CMS charge fees to both parties for this part of their service.
The latest figures from the CMS show 737,600 children are covered by Child Maintenance Service arrangements. The figures released cover the period between January 2015 and March 2020 and break down as follows:
- 471,700 children covered through Direct Pay arrangements – this is where the parents have received a formal assessment from the CMS but then they opt to sort out their own arrangements for the payment of maintenance from one to the other.
- 261,200 children covered through the Collect and Pay Service – this is where the CMS are directly involved in collecting payments from one parent and arranging for monies to be sent to the other parent.
- 4,800 children not yet assigned to a service.
The CMS also state that the Collect and Pay service is largely composed of individuals that transferred from the Direct Pay service, after failing to pay their liabilities.
The release covers data up to the end of March 2020. During the final weeks of this period, the Child Maintenance Service was affected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the resultant changes to the department’s operational priorities. However, the timing of the outbreak (late in the quarter) means that the impact on the figures included in the release appears to be minimal. The Department for Work and Pensions expects that the impact will be clearly manifest in the statistics for subsequent quarters.
Amanda Erskine is a solicitor in the Family department at Barker Gotelee Ipswich Solicitors.
Suffolk Family Solicitors – for more information on our range of legal services, please call the team on 01473 611211 or email [email protected]
