Government’s vision to transform child maintenance system

The Government has unveiled detailed plans for the new and radically reshaped child maintenance system in Great Britain. There will be extra help for separated parents who want to support their children and new penalties for those who won't.

Ministers believe the current system, which costs £0.5bn a year, and focuses on purely collecting and transferring money has proved inefficient and has damaged separated families. The Government wants to reshape the system so it is focused on supporting families to make their own arrangements which are in the best interests of the children involved.

To do this, £20m is being invested to provide a network of support services, capable of reaching out to help separated families, wherever they are, whatever their background, online, on the phone, and in person.

An extra layer of support to help parents make their own maintenance arrangements will also be provided by a gateway service; for the first time, all parents considering applying for child maintenance payments via the state will be invited to discuss their situation and consider possible alternatives. Where appropriate, it will signpost them to community-based support services.

The new statutory maintenance scheme, to be known as the Child Maintenance Service, will take cases where parents cannot make their own arrangements. In order to motivate and create incentives for parental collaboration, a system of charging will apply.