Official Statistics

Separated families statistics: April 2014 to March 2021 (experimental)

Published 31 March 2022

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

The latest release of these statistics can be found in the collection of Separated families statistics.

This is a release of annual statistics on separated families in Great Britain.

These statistics have been developed using guidelines set out by the UK Statistics Authority and are official statistics undergoing development. They have therefore been designated as experimental statistics.

This publication contains new estimates covering the financial year ending 2021 and revised figures for the financial year ending 2020. Methodological changes introduced to improve the measurement of child maintenance arrangements mean the number of separated families and proportion of those families with an arrangement from the financial year ending 2020 onwards are not directly comparable to earlier years. Further information is available in the background information and methodology note.

The next release is planned for March 2023.

1. Introduction

This publication uses the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data. It provides new statistical estimates relating to separated families and their child maintenance arrangements for the financial year ending 2021. It therefore includes the first 12 months of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In summary, several factors affected FRS data collection, response rates and the distribution of characteristics among FRS survey respondents including:

• change in the mode of interviewing
• changes in the methods used to contact survey participants
• changes in people’s behaviours and circumstances during the pandemic

Users will need to be aware of the potential effects of COVID-19 on both the survey and individual circumstances and should interpret results, particularly across different time periods, with care. Further detail on these impacts are available in this release and in the background information and methodology note.

These statistics provide estimates of the following:

• the number of separated families in Great Britain and the number of children in those families
• the proportion of separated families with a child maintenance arrangement and whether this arrangement is statutory or non-statutory
• the total amount of child maintenance received by Parents With Care, by arrangement type
• the net impact of child maintenance payments on the number of children in low income households
• characteristics of separated parents and the impacts of child maintenance payments on where their households are represented in the income distribution

This release includes the following changes: 

• methodology improvements to simplify how we address the misreporting of child maintenance arrangements. These include using new survey questions from the FRS and changing an aggregate level adjustment for misreporting to individual level adjustments. These affect:

  1. the proportion of separated families with a child maintenance arrangement
  2. the estimated number of separated families
  3. the total amount of maintenance received by Parents with Care

• change in approach to the tables showing the position of parents in separated families in the income distribution, so that they now show the income distribution of all individuals in Parent with Care and Non-Resident Parent households

Further details are provided in sections 4 and 7 of this release, and in section 7 of the background information and methodology note.

It should be noted that there is no requirement for separated families to have a child maintenance arrangement and some families may not want an arrangement. If parents do want an arrangement, they may be able to agree this themselves without the involvement of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS). Arrangements made in this way are called non-statutory arrangements or ‘family based arrangements’. Where parents want an arrangement but need help with this, support is available through the Child Maintenance Options service (from 1 April 2022 this service will be known as ‘Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance’).

2. Main stories

In the financial year ending 2021 it is estimated that:

• there were 2.3 million separated families in Great Britain and 3.6 million children in those separated families
• 60% of separated families had a child maintenance arrangement

In the three-year period covering the financial years ending 2019 to 2021, it is estimated that:

• Parents With Care in separated families received a total of £2.4 billion annually in child maintenance payments
• 89% of Parents With Care were female and 87% were under the age of 50
• 88% of Non-Resident Parents were male and 79% were under the age of 50
• child maintenance payments reduced the number of children living in low income households. Overall, as a result of these payments, 80,000 children were moved out of absolute low income on a before housing costs basis each year, and 140,000 children on an after housing costs basis
• child maintenance receipts reduced the percentage of individuals in Parent With Care households who are in the lowest 20% of the after housing costs income distribution by three percentage points
• child maintenance payments reduced the percentage of individuals in Non-Resident Parent households who are in the highest 20% of the after housing costs income distribution by three percentage points

3. What you need to know

Parent With Care

A Parent With Care is the parent who has sole or main day-to-day care of any relevant children and who may potentially be eligible to receive child maintenance.

Non-Resident Parent

A Non-Resident Parent is the parent who does not have sole or main day-to-day care of any relevant children and who may be required to pay child maintenance.

Separated family

A separated family is defined as one Parent With Care, one Non-Resident Parent and any biological or adopted children they have between them who are either under 16 or under 20 and in full-time non-tertiary education.

Child maintenance arrangement

There are two main types of child maintenance arrangement: statutory arrangements and non-statutory arrangements. Separated families may have more than one type of arrangement.

Statutory child maintenance arrangements

Statutory child maintenance arrangements are those which have been arranged with the help of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) or its predecessor, the Child Support Agency (CSA).

Non-statutory arrangements

Non-statutory arrangements include all other arrangements such as:

• voluntary financial arrangements which involve direct monetary payments between parents where the CMS or CSA have not been involved
• voluntary non-financial arrangements involving payments in kind
• other types of arrangements including shared care arrangements
• court orders requiring parents to make financial payments

Child Maintenance Options

Child Maintenance Options is a free service providing impartial information and support to help separated parents make decisions about their child maintenance arrangements. From 1 April 2022, Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance will replace the Child Maintenance Option service.

Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance

Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance is a new digital service for child maintenance applications and information about the choices available to parents to either make their own (non-statutory) arrangement or use the CMS.

Child Maintenance Service (CMS)

The CMS was introduced in December 2012. It replaced the CSA and is for separated parents who can’t arrange child maintenance between themselves. Parents can ask the CMS to calculate the amount of maintenance to be paid and, if necessary, to help manage and collect payments. Since the end of 2018, all CSA cases with on-going liabilities closed. Parents now have the option of setting up a statutory arrangement with the CMS, a non-statutory, family-based arrangement, or choosing not to have an arrangement at all.

Equivalised household income

If a household’s income is equivalised, it means that it has been adjusted for household size and composition to make it comparable with other household incomes.

Low income

A household is said to be in relative low income if their equivalised income is below 60% of median household income, while they are said to be in absolute low income if their equivalised income is below 60% of the median household income adjusted for inflation for the financial year ending 2011. For comparative purposes, both relative and absolute low income are estimated before and after taking housing costs into account.

Income deciles and quintiles

In this publication deciles divide the population, when ranked by equivalised household income, into ten equal sized groups, and are indicated by 1 to 10, while quintiles divide the population into five groups.

Income distribution

This shows how equivalised household income is shared through a population. Comparisons to the equivalised household income percentiles of a reference population allow the income distributions of different groups to be compared. In this publication we show the distribution of equivalised household incomes of individuals in Parent with Care and Non-Resident Parent households relative to the equivalised household income quintiles of all individuals in Great Britain.

4. Separated families and their child maintenance arrangements

It is estimated that for the financial year ending 2021, there were approximately 2.3 million separated families in Great Britain, including 3.6 million children in those separated families. The number of separated families for the financial year ending 2020 has been revised slightly from 2.4 million to 2.3 million.

In the financial year ending 2021, 60% of separated families had a child maintenance arrangement. The proportion of separated families with a child maintenance arrangement for the financial year ending 2020 has been revised from 56% to 59%.

Both revisions are due to methodological changes which are outlined in the background information and methodology note. As a result of these methodological changes, comparisons with financial years ending before 2020 should not be made.

Separated families by child maintenance arrangement type, for the financial years ending 2020 to 2021

Sources: FRS and CMS administrative database (see the accompanying tables for full data).

Notes about these statistics:

1. Totals may not sum due to rounding. Percentages are calculated using figures prior to rounding and are rounded to the nearest integer.
2. Figures relating to the financial year ending 2021 are new and shown for the first time in this publication, while figures relating to the financial year ending 2020 have been revised. All other figures in the accompanying tables remain unchanged from previous publications.
3. For simplicity, parents who have both statutory and non-statutory arrangements are included in the statutory arrangement group. (See the accompanying tables for full data).

4. Measures of uncertainty to assess statistical significance of year on year changes are currently unavailable, but are being explored for future publications. As a result of COVID-19, sample sizes are smaller and estimates are expected to be more uncertain than usual in the financial year ending 2021. Users should interpret results with care, particularly across years.

Between the financial years ending 2015 to 2019, statutory child maintenance moved from the CSA to the CMS. The CMS provides support to enable parents to choose the arrangement that works best for them. This could be a statutory arrangement or a non-statutory arrangement, and there is no requirement for parents to have an arrangement.

The CSA cases were closed in groups. Those closed first were the simpler cases, such as those with no liability in place. The last cases to close were more complex, such as those where enforcement action was on-going. Any fall in the proportion of separated families with a statutory arrangement may be partly due to the closure of historical CSA cases that were non-compliant or had no ongoing liability.

See accompanying tables for full data.

5. The impact of child maintenance payments on the number of children in low income households

On average, it is estimated that £2.4 billion in child maintenance payments was received each year by Parents With Care in separated families in the financial years ending 2019 to 2021. Around 70% of these payments related to non-statutory child maintenance arrangements, with around 30% relating to statutory arrangements.

Total amount of child maintenance received by Parents With Care, by arrangement type for the financial years ending 2019 to 2021

Sources: FRS; CMS administrative data. See the accompanying tables for full data.

Child maintenance payments reduced the net number of children living in low income households. Overall, 140,000 children were moved out of low income each year on the absolute low income after housing cost measure. Most of this impact related to single parent families.

Table 1: The annual impact of child maintenance payments on the number of children in low income households, for the financial years ending 2019 to 2021

Definition of low income	Net impact on the number of children in low income households (thousands)
Relative low income (before housing costs) – below 60% of contemporary median household income	-120
Relative low income (after housing costs) – below 60% of contemporary median household income	-160
Absolute low income (before housing costs) – below 60% of median household income in the financial year ending 2011 held constant in real terms	-80
Absolute low income (after housing costs) – below 60% of median household income in the financial year ending 2011 held constant in real terms	-140

Source: FRS; HBAI data. See the accompanying tables for full data.

Notes about Table 1:

1. Estimates are rounded to the nearest 20,000.

Relatively large numbers of children moving out of low income following child maintenance payments in the financial year ending 2021 contribute to the three-year average statistics. This arises, at least partly, from the economic impacts of COVID-19. The pandemic and the government response to its impact had a significant effect on the UK labour market and household incomes. Many businesses ceased operating or had to change their working practices, while government interventions allowed for the furloughing of workers. In addition, the requirement for social distancing changed the way individuals worked or their ability to look for and find employment and there were large increases in claims for social security benefits. From April 2020, both new and existing Universal Credit claimants and existing Working Tax Credit claimants received a temporary additional £20 per week on top of annual uprating, also known as the ‘UC Uplift’. All of these factors will have affected separated families and their incomes. These effects will continue to influence these three-year average statistics for the next two years.

6. Estimates of the position of separated parent household members in the Great Britain income distribution (and where they would be had they not paid or received child maintenance)

Considering an After Housing Costs basis, the equivalised incomes of Non-Resident Parent household members are more evenly spread across the equivalised income distribution for Great Britain compared with Parent With Care households. The equivalised income distribution of Parent with Care household members is more skewed towards the lowest income quintiles. This situation remains largely unchanged even after child maintenance has been paid from the Non-Resident Parent to the Parent With Care.

Position of Parent With Care and Non-Resident Parent household members in the Great Britain income distributions before and after child maintenance, After Housing Costs, for the financial years ending 2019 to 2021.

After child maintenance has been paid, we estimate that the percentage of Parent With Care household members in the bottom quintile is three percentage points lower and the proportion of Non-Resident Parent household members in the top quintile is three percentage points lower. While child maintenance payments result in a rise in the proportion of Non-Resident Parent household members in the lowest quintile to 23%, over a third (36%) of Parent With Care household members still remain in the lowest quintile, even after child maintenance is received.

7. About these statistics

These statistics have been developed using guidelines set out by the UK Statistics Authority and are official statistics undergoing development. They have therefore been designated as experimental statistics. We publish these statistics on an annual basis and will continue to expand their scope to help to meet user needs where reliable estimates can be obtained.

These Great Britain (GB)-level statistics are estimates based primarily on data from the Family Resources Survey (FRS). The FRS is based on a representative sample usually comprising around 19,000 United Kingdom (UK) households. The sample for the financial year ending 2021 is smaller at around 10,000 private households due to impacts of COVID-19. In addition to the sample size reductions, the composition of the FRS achieved sample changed significantly between the financial years ending 2020 and 2021. The grossing regime was adjusted to improve the representativeness of the sample but some unknown biases remain. Users will need to be aware of the potential effects of COVID-19 on both the survey and individual circumstances and should interpret results with care. More information can be found in the separated families statistics background information and methodology note and the FRS methodology and background note.

The FRS is a continuous survey which collects information on the income, characteristics and circumstances of individuals living in a representative sample of private households in the UK. FRS respondents are asked about the relationships within their household and any child maintenance arrangements they may have. Their responses are used to determine whether they are members of a separated family, how many children are in that family, the types of child maintenance arrangements they have (if any) and the amount of maintenance they receive. Where feasible and appropriate, FRS responses regarding child maintenance arrangements are checked for accuracy against the DWP’s CMS, and historically against CSA, administrative databases and amended in line with the administrative data.

Estimates of the total amount of child maintenance payments received by Parents With Care are based on a combination of administrative data and adjusted FRS data.

The HBAI methodology and data, together with FRS information on child maintenance payments, are used to obtain estimates of:

• the impact of child maintenance payments on the net number of children in low income households
• the position of members of separated parent households in the GB income distribution

More information about the methodology used to produce these statistics and its limitations can be found in the accompanying background information and methodology note.

Rounding

Figures are rounded to the nearest 100,000, except those relating to the impact of child maintenance payments on the number of children in low income households which are rounded to the nearest 20,000. Monetary amounts are rounded to the nearest hundred million pounds. Percentages are calculated using figures prior to rounding and are rounded to the nearest integer. Totals may not sum due to rounding.

Changes made to this publication

The latest release includes the following changes:

• methodology improvements to simplify how we address the misreporting of child maintenance arrangements. These include using new survey questions from the FRS and changing an aggregate level adjustment for misreporting to individual level adjustments. These affect:

  1. the proportion of separated families with a child maintenance arrangement, increasing the financial year ending 2020 estimate from 56% to 59%
  2. the estimated number of separated families, decreasing the rounded estimate for the financial year ending 2020 from 2.4 million to 2.3 million
  3. the total amount of maintenance received by Parents with Care, increasing the three year average for the financial years ending 2019 to 2021 from £2.3 billion to £2.4 billion

• a change in approach to the tables showing the position of parents in separated families in the income distribution so that they now show the income distribution of all individuals in Parent With Care and Non-Resident Parent households. This allows for a better understanding about the impact child maintenance has on whole households, rather than just the parents. This slightly changes the statistic so that there is less representation of individuals in Non-Resident Parent households in the first income decile.

More information on these changes can be found in section 7 of the background information and methodology note.

Planned changes

These statistics are estimates derived using an experimental methodology which will continue to be reviewed and, where feasible, improved. Any future revisions will be clearly indicated and explained in the relevant publication.

8. Where to find out more

More information about these statistics can be found in the accompanying background information and methodology note and tables.

Statistics on the child maintenance arrangements made by parents who contacted Child Maintenance Options.

Experimental statistics on the statutory child maintenance arrangements administered by the Child Maintenance Service.

Experimental statistics on the Child Support Agency’s 1993 and 2003 statutory child maintenance schemes and on Child Support Agency case closure.

More information about the Child Maintenance Service and Child Support Agency.

More information about the Family Resources Survey.

More information about the Households Below Average Income.

Feedback

Users are invited to comment on the development and relevance of these statistics at this stage and can send feedback to: cm.analysis.research@dwp.gov.uk

ISBN: 978-1-78659-411-2