Bringing child maintenance under direct Ministerial control

Following a public consultation last year, an order has been laid in Parliament to bring the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission back under direct Ministerial control as a business unit of the Department for Work and Pensions.

At present only half of children living in separated families have financial support in place. The Government’s wider child maintenance reforms are designed to ensure more separated parents have effective financial support in place for their children. The Child Support Agency will close to new customers from later this year; marking the end of a failing system, long overdue for reform.

Parents will be supported and helped to make their own, family-based child maintenance arrangements, which the Government claims more than half of parents who currently use the statutory service would prefer. A new, streamlined and more efficient statutory child maintenance service will be introduced for those who need it.