Gingerbread criticises child maintenance changes

The Observer reported yesterday on the changes to child maintenance payments due to come into force soon. The government is winding up the Child Support Agency (CSA) and replacing it with the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) on a new IT system; its consultation on the final details – what it will charge those using its services – ends on 26 October.

From 2014, the changes will involve closing the 1.2 million cases of parents currently receiving money through the CSA and stopping payments currently taken directly from their ex-partners’ wages or bank accounts. All non-resident parents – the ones not looking after the children – will be given the chance to make the payments directly to the parent with care, rather than having them collected by the new CMS, regardless of their previous payment record.

The government emphasises that parents escaping violent relationships need not have direct contact with their former partners or provide any information about their bank accounts. The CMS will calculate the amount due to them, and they can use the Direct Pay money transfer system to receive money without revealing their bank details.

Janet Allbeson, a senior policy adviser with Gingerbread, says this policy will be very worrying to a women who has been a victim of abuse, as money is frequently used as a form of control by the abusing partner: “The government has accepted that domestic violence can take the form of financial abuse, yet it intends to put a victim in the position where she is potentially exposed to further attempts at manipulation and control, by the payer altering payment dates or withholding money. This runs the risk of perpetuating the abuse.”

If the non-resident parent fails to pay through Direct Pay, the CMS will step in to enforce payments, and both parents will be charged for the collection of maintenance – a service that until now has been free.

For the whole article, see Child support agency changes threaten women already living in fear