Official Statistics

Child Maintenance Service statistics: data to June 2021 (experimental)

Published 28 September 2021

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

The latest release of these statistics can be found in the collection of Child Maintenance Service statistics.

This release of statistics is on the Child Maintenance Service for Great Britain between January 2015 and June 2021. The release includes minor revisions to previously published statistics.

The next release is planned for 14 December 2021.

1. Introduction

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) was introduced in December 2012 as part of the Government’s Child Maintenance reforms. It replaced the Child Support Agency (CSA) and is for separated parents who cannot arrange child maintenance between themselves. The CMS offers two levels of service:

  • “Direct Pay” is where the CMS calculates the amount of maintenance to be paid, and parents arrange payments between themselves
  • “Collect & Pay” is used when parents cannot arrange payments between themselves, or if the Paying Parent does not keep up with payments. The CMS will collect and manage payments between the parents

The CMS has a range of enforcement actions it can use if the Paying Parent refuses to pay.

2. Main stories

Children covered by Child Maintenance Service arrangements, June 2019 to June 2021

Source: Child Maintenance Service Children data, available on Stat-Xplore.

There are 783,000 children covered by CMS arrangements:

  • 506,600 children covered through Direct Pay arrangements
  • 267,100 children covered through the Collect & Pay Service
  • 9,300 children not yet assigned to a service

The number of children covered by CMS arrangements increased by 13,400 between March 2021 and June 2021.

Compliance rate of Paying Parents on the Collect & Pay service, quarters ending June 2020 to June 2021

Source: Child Maintenance Service Paying Parents data, available on Stat-Xplore.

In the quarter ending June 2021, of 153,100 Paying Parents due to pay via the Collect & Pay service:

  • 39,300 (26%) paid no maintenance
  • 113,900 (74%) paid some maintenance:
    • 36,300 (24%) paid up to 90% of the maintenance due for the quarter (further breakdowns of this group are available on Stat-Xplore)
    • 77,600 (51%) paid over 90% of the maintenance due for the quarter

The percentage of parents paying at least some of their quarterly liability has increased by 2 percentage points since last quarter, although the number paying 90% or more has fallen by 2 percentage points.

3. What you need to know

Child maintenance is financial support, towards a child’s everyday living costs, that a parent without the main day-to-day care of the child provides to the other parent.

Separated parents can arrange child maintenance themselves. This is called a ‘family-based arrangement’ and is a private way to sort out child maintenance. Parents arrange everything themselves and no-one else has to be involved.

The CMS replaced the Child Support Agency (CSA). It is for parents who cannot agree to a family-based arrangement.

Parents wishing to use the CMS must first contact Child Maintenance Options (CM Options). CM Options is a free service that provides impartial information and support to help separated parents make decisions about their child maintenance arrangements.

Definitions

Receiving Parent

The Receiving Parent has the main day-to-day care of the children and receives the child maintenance.

Paying Parent

The Paying Parent does not have the main day-to-day care of the children and pays child maintenance.

Children covered

Children covered is the number of children for whom the Paying Parent has a child maintenance arrangement.

Compliance

This measures how much maintenance has been successfully collected from the Paying Parent compared to the amount of new maintenance arranged via the Collect & Pay service in that three-month period. Note that, if a parent is trying to settle arrears that have previously accumulated, they would need to pay more than the amount of new maintenance arranged during the quarter.

See the Background Information document for more details.

4. Applications to the Child Maintenance Service

Parents who want to apply to the CMS must pay a £20 application fee. Parents do not have to pay this if they:

  • have been a victim of domestic abuse
  • declare their child has been the victim of abuse
  • are under 19 years of age

Some applications to the CMS are from parents who previously had an arrangement with the Child Support Agency. All Child Support Agency cases with an ongoing liability were closed by December 2018. Parents were then encouraged to make a new family-based arrangement or an arrangement through the CMS. The CMS may still receive applications from parents who previously used the CSA, as they may have had a family-based arrangement in the interim.

Applications to the Child Maintenance Service, quarters ending June 2019 to June 2021

Source: Child Maintenance Service statistics data to June 2021, National Tables, table 3

In the quarter ending June 2021, there were 19,700 new applications to the CMS. 60% were exempt from paying the £20 application fee. This was mainly due to applicants who had previously experienced domestic abuse.

At the end of June 2021, the CMS was managing 559,100 arrangements for 520,100 Paying Parents. There has been an 8% increase to the number of arrangements since the end of June 2020.

See tables 1-3 of the national tables for more information on applications.

See Stat-Xplore for more information on arrangements and paying parents.

5. Composition of cases on the Child Maintenance Service

When a parent makes an application to the CMS, they will be told how much child maintenance should be paid.

Some parents will then arrange the payments between themselves: this service is known as Direct Pay. The CMS simply provides the calculation and no further use of the service is required. Direct Pay can be chosen by either parent with the other’s agreement. Neither parent pays collection fees under Direct Pay.

Parents are issued a text message 3 months after they set up a Direct Pay arrangement, and at each annual review, to check that the arrangement is still meeting their requirements.

If parents cannot arrange payments between themselves, or if the Paying Parent does not keep up with the payments, the Receiving Parent can ask the CMS to switch the case to the Collect & Pay service.

Under the Collect & Pay service, the CMS calculates the amount of maintenance due (including the recovery of unpaid maintenance that has built up under the Direct Pay service), collects maintenance from the Paying Parent, and pays it to the Receiving Parent.

There are ongoing collection charges for use of the Collect & Pay service, payable by both:

  • the Paying Parent (20% charged on top of the maintenance amount)
  • the Receiving Parent (4% taken out of the maintenance amount)

Non-compliance under the Collect and Pay service can lead to the use of enforcement powers.

Flow of arrangements on the Child Maintenance Service, quarter ending June 2021

Source: Child Maintenance Service statistics data to June 2021, National Tables, table 4

Data on the flow of arrangements around the CMS in the quarter ending June 2021 shows:

  • most new applicants choose to start on Direct Pay: 11,700 new applicants joined Direct Pay during the quarter
  • 63% of all CMS arrangements use Direct Pay, with 36% using Collect & Pay
  • more parents moved from Direct Pay to Collect & Pay than the other way around: 7,200 parents switched to Collect & Pay during the quarter
  • the number of arrangements increased by 11,100 during the quarter
  • the number of arrangements not yet assigned to a service has increased from 5,800 to 7,100

See table 4 of the national tables for more information.

See Stat-Xplore for more information on arrangements.

6. Children covered by the Child Maintenance Service

Children covered by the Child Maintenance Service, quarters ending June 2019 to June 2021

Source: Child Maintenance Service Children data, available on Stat-Xplore.

At the end of June 2021:

  • 506,600 children were covered by 351,400 Direct Pay arrangements
  • 267,100 children were covered by 200,500 Collect & Pay arrangements
    • 169,900 of these children were covered by 121,300 Collect & Pay arrangements where the Paying Parent paid some maintenance during the quarter

The number of children covered by CMS arrangements has increased steadily over the last 2 years.

See Stat-Xplore for more information on children.

7. Paying Parents and the Collect and Pay service

This includes Paying Parents transferred from the Direct Pay service because they have not kept up with payments.

Compliance rate of Paying Parents on the Collect & Pay Service, quarters ending June 2019 to June 2021

Source (compliance rate for quarter ending June 2019): Child Maintenance Service statistics data to September 2020, National Tables, table 6

Source (all other data): Child Maintenance Service Paying Parents data, available on Stat-Xplore.

In the quarter ending June 2021, of 153,100 Paying Parents due to pay via the Collect & Pay service:

  • 39,300 (26%) paid no maintenance
  • 113,900 (74%) paid some maintenance:
    • 36,300 (24%) paid up to 90% of the maintenance due for the quarter (further breakdowns of this group are available on Stat-Xplore)
    • 77,600 (51%) paid over 90% of the maintenance due for the quarter

The percentage of parents paying some of their quarterly liability has increased by 2 percentage points since last quarter, although the number paying 90% or more has fallen by 2 percentage points.

Parents paying over 90% are grouped together because even if a Paying Parent is fully complying with an arrangement, their compliance rate may not be exactly 100%. This is due to differences between how liability accumulates on the CMS ‘liability schedule’ (used to calculate the amount due) and how collections are scheduled in practice. This group also includes Paying Parents who have paid more than 100% of their liability for the quarter, in order to pay off arrears that they have previously accumulated.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had two main effects on the Collect & Pay compliance rate:

  • during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, child maintenance deductions from Universal Credit (UC) were paused for one month (10 April to 9 May 2020). During this time, the Government paid all child maintenance liabilities for parents who were paying via deductions from UC. This raised the compliance rate for the quarter ending June 2020 only
  • more people are claiming benefits. Therefore, more parents are paying via Deduction from Benefits. These individuals are now more likely to contribute some maintenance, as deductions are made automatically. This has been affecting the compliance rate since the quarter ending June 2020, and is likely to persist over an extended time period

See Stat-Xplore for more information on Paying Parents.

8. Child Maintenance due and paid

The CMS monitors payments made through the Collect & Pay service and can take enforcement action where necessary.

Parents on Direct Pay with unpaid maintenance owed will first have to transfer to Collect & Pay before the CMS can take any action. This means the Collect & Pay service consists of a subset of Paying Parents who are less likely to pay.

Child Maintenance due and paid each quarter, quarters ending June 2019 to June 2021

Source: Child Maintenance Service statistics data to June 2021, National Tables, table 5

During the quarter ending June 2021, £273.2 million Child Maintenance was due to be paid:

  • £212.3 million was arranged through the Direct Pay service
  • £60.9 million was arranged through the Collect & Pay service:
    • £46.9 million was actually paid through the Collect & Pay service

Since 2012, when the CMS began, £421.5 million in unpaid maintenance has accumulated. This amounts to 9% of all maintenance due to be paid since the start of the service.

See tables 5 and 6 of the national tables for more information.

9. Enforcement

When a payment is missed, the CMS contacts the Paying Parent to arrange a recovery of what is owed and make clear the actions that may be pursued in the absence of a payment.

For parents on Collect & Pay, enforcement is automatically pursued on their behalf.

For parents on Direct Pay, the arrangement must be switched to the Collect & Pay service before any enforcement action can commence.

The CMS can enforce the collection of child maintenance in four major ways:

  1. deduction from earnings order or request – money is recovered from the Paying Parent’s earnings via their employer, who will be instructed on the amount to deduct.

  2. deduction from benefit – money is recovered from the Paying Parent’s benefits.

  3. deduction order – money is deducted directly from the Paying Parent’s bank or building society account.

  4. courts – a Paying Parent can be taken to court over unpaid maintenance.

The Child Maintenance Service can enforce the regular collection of ongoing maintenance through Deduction from Earnings Orders and Requests, or through Deduction from Benefits. The Paying Parent may also opt to use these methods of payment voluntarily.

Methods of Payment used on the Collect & Pay Service, December 2019 and June 2021

Source: Child Maintenance Service Paying Parents data, available on Stat-Xplore.

In this section, the latest data is compared to that of December 2019: the last quarter entirely unaffected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the quarter ending June 2021, of 153,100 Paying Parents due to pay via the Collect & Pay service:

  • 44,900 (29%) had a Deduction from Earnings Order or Request in place
  • 58,500 (38%) were due to pay via Deduction from Benefits
  • 49,700 (32%) were due to pay via other methods of payment

The “other methods of payment” were predominantly default standing orders. See Stat-Xplore for more information on payment methods.

The proportion of parents paying via Deduction from Benefits has increased following the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw an increased movement of people onto benefits. Deduction from Benefit cases accounted for 38% of all Paying Parents due to pay via the Collect & Pay service in the quarter ending June 2021, compared to only 25% for the quarter ending December 2019.

The CMS may pursue unpaid maintenance through the courts. The courts can grant liability orders, which allow further action to be taken, such as referral to enforcement agents, who can seize goods and sell them to cover any unpaid maintenance and costs. Where the Paying Parent is a homeowner, courts may grant a charging order against the property. This prevents any sale without repayment of unpaid maintenance. Ultimately, the court may grant an order for sale which forces the sale of the property.

Deduction Orders and Civil Enforcement Actions in process, December 2019 and June 2021

Source: Child Maintenance Service statistics data to June 2021, National Tables, table 7.1

At the end of June 2021:

  • 5,100 Liability Orders were in process
  • 3,800 Regular or Lump Sum Deduction Orders were in process
  • 3,300 Enforcement Agent Referrals were in process

If the above methods are unsuccessful, the Child Maintenance Service may apply for the courts to:

  • disqualify the parent from holding or obtaining a driving licence
  • disqualify the parent from holding or obtaining a passport
  • send the parent to prison

See tables 7.1 and 7.2 of the national tables for more information.

Enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic

Taking substantial enforcement action relies on third parties, including Her Majesty’s courts, bailiffs and the banks. A number of third parties were not in a position to fully support enforcement activity during the early stages of the pandemic but partnership work has advanced significantly over recent months.

All banks are able to take Deduction Order requests. Liability Orders, which are the gateway measure to legal enforcement activity, required the most court involvement and were the most difficult measure to restart while social distancing requirements remained in place. The CMS has been working with HM Courts and Tribunals Service to establish alternatives to face to face court hearings by setting up video / phone hearings where outcomes are received digitally.

10. About these statistics

Comparisons

Comparisons between these statistics on the CMS and statistics on the Child Support Agency should not be made as the 2 services have different aims and cover different groups.

The government’s changes to the child maintenance system in 2012 were designed to encourage parents to work together to provide for their children. Child Maintenance Options were created to support parents to set up collaborative, family-based arrangements. The CMS was intended for those parents who cannot make family-based arrangements.

Rounding

Figures contained within this publication are rounded to the nearest hundred, percent, or £100,000. This means unrounded figures from the underlying data available on Stat-Xplore may not sum exactly to the rounded totals used in this release. Percentages are calculated prior to rounding.

These statistics have been developed using guidelines set out by the UK Statistics Authority.

Changes made to this publication

The National Tables that accompany this publication have been significantly re-formatted in order to conform to the latest Government Statistical Service guidelines on releasing statistics in spreadsheets. The aim of this guidance is to improve the usability, accessibility and machine readability of statistical spreadsheets.

There have been some minor revisions made to the Stat-Xplore data for Arrangements. See the Background Information document for more details.

Where to find out more

Read previous releases of these statistics.

Read information and statistics on family-based arrangements.

Related Statistics: Child Support Agency statistics and Estimates of the Separated Family Population Statistics.

11. Future Development

The final publication of the Child Support Agency (CSA) Quarterly Summary Statistics is scheduled for 27 October 2021. Table 8.1 and 8.2 (‘Collections and write-off on CSA arrears only case groups’ and ‘Methods of debt collection for CSA arrears only case groups’ respectively) from this publication will then transfer over to be published alongside the Child Maintenance Service Quarterly Statistics, starting from the publication scheduled for 14 December 2021.

We are planning to include information about the amount of money collected via civil enforcement actions into the narrative in the summary document. This will be using data that is already available via the Child Maintenance Service statistics National Tables.

In the next publication, we are planning to include an additional section in the summary document, outlining characteristics of Paying Parent population (for example, gender and age profile). This will be using data that is already available via Stat-Xplore.

Feedback and queries

If you have any views on the above changes, queries or feedback on any aspect of our statistics please email cm.analysis.research@dwp.gov.uk

Authors: Amy Grant and James Kerr

Lead statistician: Juwaria Rahman

ISBN: 978-1-78659-357-3