Official Statistics

Child Maintenance Service statistics: data to September 2024

Published 17 December 2024

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

This is a release of statistics on the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) for Great Britain between January 2015 and September 2024. The release includes minor revisions to previously published statistics.

1. Main stories

In the quarter to September 2024:

• the CMS received 40,000 new applications, up 5,100 compared with the quarter to September 2023
• over 1 million children were covered by CMS arrangements, an increase of 72,000 since the quarter to September 2023
• 22,000 Direct Pay arrangements were closed. This is almost four times more than in the quarter ending June 2024 (5,700 arrangements) due to removal of cases through a bulk-closure exercise following new powers for the CMS.
• of Paying Parents using Collect and Pay, 68% paid some maintenance, a decrease of 1 percentage point on the quarter to September 2023. Of this group:
  • 23% paid up to 90% of the maintenance due for the quarter
  • 45% paid over 90% of the maintenance due for the quarter

2. 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, (Paying Parent), provides to the other parent, (Receiving Parent).

Separated parents can arrange child maintenance themselves. This is called a family-based arrangement and is a private way to agree child maintenance. Family-based arrangements are not covered by this release.

The CMS offers two levels of service:

• Direct Pay – the CMS calculates the amount of maintenance to be paid, and parents arrange payments between themselves
• Collect and Pay – the CMS will collect and manage payments between the parents when parents cannot arrange payments between themselves, or if the Paying Parent does not keep up with payments

Further detail on the CMS is provided in the About these statistics section of this release.

3. Applications to the Child Maintenance Service

In the year to September 2024 there were 140,000 new applications to the CMS, an increase of 13% from the year to September 2023.

In February 2024, application fees were removed from all applications to the CMS.

Applications to the Child Maintenance Service, quarters ending September 2022 to September 2024

Source: Child Maintenance Service statistics data to September 2024, National Tables, table 2

In the quarter ending September 2024 there were 40,000 new applications to the CMS.

At the end of September 2024, the CMS was managing 750,000 arrangements for 680,000 Paying Parents. There has been an 8% increase in the number of arrangements since the end of September 2023.

See tables 1-2 of the national tables for more information on applications.

See Stat-Xplore for more information on arrangements and Paying Parents.

4. Composition of Arrangements on the Child Maintenance Service

In the quarter ending September 2024, the Child Maintenance Service managed 750,000 arrangements. There were 40,000 new arrangements to the CMS. In the same quarter, an increased amount of arrangements were removed (36,000), some as part of a bulk-closure exercise for arrangements with debts under £7 (where there is no longer a liability to pay ongoing maintenance). This led to a smaller net increase than in previous quarters (4,700 arrangements).

Flow of arrangements on the Child Maintenance Service, quarter ending September 2024

Source: Child Maintenance Service statistics data to September 2024, National Tables, table 3

Data on the flow of arrangements around the CMS in the quarter ending September 2024 shows:

• of those new applicants who have been assigned, most new applicants start on Direct Pay: 17,000 new applicants joined Direct Pay during the quarter
• 59% of all CMS arrangements use Direct Pay, with 39% using Collect and Pay
• 22,000 Direct Pay arrangements have closed. This is almost four times more than in the quarter ending June 2024 (5,700 arrangements). In February 2024, the Child Maintenance Service gained the power to close arrangements with debts under £7, where there is no longer a liability to pay ongoing maintenance. Many of these arrangements were removed in the quarter ending September 2024, through a bulk-closure exercise
• the Child Maintenance Service has also been improving its service to allow Direct Pay arrangements to quickly move to Collect and Pay when the Paying Parent is not paying or when Direct Pay is no longer appropriate. 14,000 arrangements moved from Direct Pay to Collect and Pay in the quarter ending September 2024. This was a 36% increase compared to the previous quarter
• the number of arrangements not yet assigned to a service has remained the same at 19,000
• the proportion of arrangements that are not yet assigned to a service type accounts for 3% of all arrangements

See table 3 of the national tables.

See Stat-Xplore for more information on arrangements.

5. Children covered by the Child Maintenance Service

In the quarter ending September 2024, over 1 million children were covered by CMS arrangements, an increase of 72,000 from the quarter ending September 2023.

Children covered by the Child Maintenance Service, quarters ending September 2022 to September 2024

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

At the end of September 2024:

• 620,000 children were covered by 440,000 Direct Pay arrangements
• 380,000 children were covered by 290,000 Collect and Pay arrangements:
  • 220,000 of these children were covered by 150,000 Collect and Pay arrangements where the Paying Parent paid some maintenance during the quarter
  • 160,000 of these children were covered by 140,000 Collect and Pay arrangements where no maintenance was paid during the quarter
• 26,000 children were not yet assigned to a service

The number of children covered by CMS arrangements has increased steadily since March 2016.

See Stat-Xplore for more information on children.

6. Paying Parents and the Collect and Pay service

This section defines compliance as any money paid towards child maintenance due on a Paying Parent’s case.

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 and Pay Service, quarters ending September 2022 to September 2024

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

In the quarter ending September 2024, of 210,000 Paying Parents due to pay via the Collect and Pay service:

• 68,000 (32%) paid no maintenance
• 140,000 (68%) paid some maintenance, of which:
  • 47,000 (23%) paid up to 90% of the maintenance due for the quarter (further breakdowns of this group are available on Stat-Xplore)
  • 94,000 (45%) paid over 90% of the maintenance due for the quarter

Since the quarter ending September 2023, the percentage of parents paying over 90% of their maintenance due for the quarter, has decreased by 2 percentage points to 45%.

Further detail on compliance is provided in the About these statistics section of this release.

See Stat-Xplore for more information on Paying Parents.

7. Paying Parents characteristics

In the quarter ending September 2024, of the 680,000 Paying Parents:

• 93% were recorded as male
• nearly three-quarters (73%) were between the ages of 30 and 49
• 41% had 2 or more qualifying children
• of those who had 2 or more qualifying children, 81% had 1 arrangement and 19% had 2 or more arrangements

See Stat-Xplore for more information on Paying Parents.

8. Child Maintenance due and paid

The CMS monitors payments made through the Collect and Pay service only .

Child Maintenance due and paid each quarter, quarters ending September 2023 to September 2024

Source: Child Maintenance Service statistics data to September 2024, National Tables, table 4

During the quarter ending September 2024, £378.5 million child maintenance was due to be paid either via the Direct Pay service or the Collect and Pay service.

• £284.4 million was arranged through the Direct Pay service:
  • DWP does not measure the compliance of Paying Parents on the Direct Pay service.
• £94.1 million was arranged through the Collect and Pay service:
  • £65.4 million was paid
  • £28.7 million was unpaid

Since 2012, when the CMS began, £682.1 million in unpaid maintenance has accumulated. This amounts to 8% of all maintenance due to be paid since the start of the service. This percentage has remained stable for the past 3 years.

Due to the complexity of the CMS 2012 system, it has emerged that some of the maintenance arranged has been miscategorised (approximately 2% of debt). This figure will be subject to revisions in due course. On 12 December 2024, the CMS Client Fund Annual Accounts publicly explained the issues around the CMS 2012 scheme data in relation to this figure.

See tables 4 and 5 of the national tables for more information.

9. Enforcement

The CMS can enforce the collection of child maintenance for those on Collect and Pay through:

• deduction from earnings orders and requests
• deduction from benefits
• deduction orders, or
• courts

Regular collection of ongoing maintenance can be enforced through deductions from earnings or benefits. The Paying Parent may also opt to use these methods voluntarily.

Methods of Payment used on the Collect and Pay Service, quarters ending September 2022 to September 2024

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

In the quarter ending September 2024, of 210,000 Paying Parents due to pay via the Collect and Pay service:

• 57,000 (27%) had a deduction from earnings order or request in place
• 79,000 (38%) were due to pay via deduction from benefits
• 74,000 (35%) were due to pay via other methods of payment, predominantly default standing orders

See Stat-Xplore for more information on payment methods.

The CMS may pursue unpaid maintenance through liability orders granted by the courts. Liability orders allow legal action to be taken, such as referral to enforcement agents, who can seize goods and sell them to cover any unpaid maintenance and costs.

Deduction Orders and Civil Enforcement Actions in process, quarters ending September 2022 to September 2024

Source: Child Maintenance Service statistics data to September 2024, National Tables, table 6.1

At the end of September 2024:

• 5,000 liability orders were in process
• 5,100 regular or lump sum deduction orders were in process
• 5,500 enforcement agent referrals were in process

These figures are impacted by a pause in bailiff actions while the Child Maintenance Service switched providers for the Bailiff service. The previous contract expired at the end of May 2024 and a new contract started in October 2024. There were 4 months where no new cases were referred to the Bailiffs. However, the Child Maintenance Service followed up these cases to see if direct payments could be recovered. Where this was not possible, these cases would remain in the new Bailiff’s caseload. This situation has also affected Applications for sanctions to the Courts for England and Wales as cases cannot be progressed to court without a previous Enforcement Agent referral.

In the past year to September 2024, the CMS has collected £5.4 million from Paying Parents with a sanctions action in process.

A Paying Parent is described as having a sanctions action in process when a service request is raised to formally consider applying sanctions to a Paying Parent. Not all such cases will result in an application being made to courts.

See tables 6.1 and 6.2 of the national tables for more information.

Further detail on enforcement is provided in the About these statistics section of this release.

10. About these statistics

The Child Maintenance Service

The CMS was introduced in December 2012 as part of the Government’s Child Maintenance Reforms. It replaced the Child Support Agency (CSA). All CSA arrangements 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.

Before applying to the CMS, parents must use the Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance (GHACM) service. GHACM is a free service that provides impartial information and support to help separated parents make decisions about their child maintenance arrangements. GHACM was introduced in November 2021 and replaced Child Maintenance Options.

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

Direct Pay

Direct Pay can be chosen by either parent with the other’s agreement. Neither parent pays collection fees under Direct Pay.

After a new Direct Pay arrangement has been set up, the system will monitor the case for the duration of two scheduled payments. Text and email prompts will be sent to both customers during this time to encourage payment.

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 and Pay service.

Collect and Pay

The CMS calculates the amount of maintenance due (including the recovery of any unpaid maintenance that may have 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 and 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.

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 and Pay, enforcement is automatically pursued on their behalf.

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

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

• 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
• Deduction from Benefit – money is recovered from the Paying Parent’s benefits
• Deduction Order – money is deducted directly from the Paying Parent’s bank or building society account
• Courts – a Paying Parent can be taken to court over unpaid maintenance.

The CMS may pursue unpaid maintenance through Liability Orders granted by the courts. Liability Orders allow legal action to be taken, which will depend on the individual case. These actions include:

• Referral to Enforcement Agents
• Registering a Paying Parent’s debt on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines
• Using an order for sale to sell a Paying Parent’s property or assets
• Stopping the Paying Parent obtaining or retaining keeping a driving licence or passport
• Sending the Paying Parent to prison

Sanctions are only used when every other method of recovering unpaid child maintenance has been attempted. The CMS only pursues these sanctions when they believe the Paying Parent can pay but are refusing to do so.

Definitions

Children covered

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

Qualifying children

Counts of qualifying children include all children who are associated with an open arrangement and are below 20 years of age. Some children aged 16 or above, may not always be considered qualifying children for the purpose of calculating the Paying Parent’s liability. See the background information note to these statistics for more details.

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 and 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.

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, to pay off arrears that they have previously accumulated.

See the Background Information document for more details.

Comparisons

Comparisons between these statistics on the CMS and statistics previously published on the Child Support Agency or CSA Table 1 (Paying Parents with CSA Arrears), which is published alongside the CMS statistics, should not be made as the two services have different aims and cover different groups.

The CMS launched in 2012 and is designed to support separated families to come to their own financial arrangements. Child Maintenance Options was created to support parents to set up collaborative, family-based arrangements. In November 2021 Child Maintenance Options was replaced with GHACM.

Rounding

Percentages are calculated using numbers prior to rounding and rounded to the nearest whole percentage point. Amounts have been rounded to the nearest £100,000. Volumes have been rounded as detailed below, in some cases a lower level of rounding may be applied to explain the difference between volumes.

Range	Rounded to the nearest
0 to 1,000	10
1,001 to 10,000	100
10,001 to 100,000	1,000
100,001 to 1,000,000	10,000
1,000,001 to 10,000,000	100,000
10,000,001 to 100,000,000	1,000,000

Release schedule

This release is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December.

The next release is planned for 25 March 2025.

Changes made to this publication

No changes to this publication.

Where to find out more

Read the Background Information document for more details on the CMS statistics.

Read previous releases of these statistics.

Related statistics:

• Child Maintenance Client Fund Annual Accounts for more details on financial figures

• Child maintenance facts and figures for more details on Separated families statistics and historical Child Maintenance Options, and CSA statistics

11. Future Development and Your Feedback

Planned Changes

1. We are hoping to move more of our regular statistics to the Stat-Xplore platform in the near future.

2. Following the removal of the Application Fee Exemption table in September 2024 which included exemptions due to domestic abuse, the Department will assess how it can provide statistics on domestic abuse going forward. The Department’s Chief Statistician will oversee the development of these statistics to make sure they meet the Code of Practice for Statistics. To keep abreast of developments to the Child Maintenance Service statistics see communications through the quarterly publications and the Department’s Statistical Work Programme.

Feedback and queries

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

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

Lead statistician: Steve Ellerd-Elliott

For media enquiries on these statistics, please contact the DWP press office.

ISBN: 978-1-78659-767-0