Gingerbread, Surviving Economic Abuse, and Women’s Aid have jointly collaborated with victim-survivors to develop this briefing, “Maintenance is used as a weapon all of the time” Domestic Abuse and the Child Maintenance Service, which explores the experiences of victim-survivors of domestic abuse with the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) and sets out practical recommendations to strengthen support and safeguards.
Key findings:
The research found that:
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The CMS fails to support survivors to safely and sustainably access the CMS.
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The CMS fails to prevent non-payment of children’s support and non-disclosure of earnings.
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The CMS fails to safeguard against misuse by abusive parents that places victim-survivors at risk of harm.
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The CMS fails to provide effective and accessible specialist support to victim-survivors.
Key recommendations:
The research found that victim-survivors want reforms to the CMS to include:
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Urgently introducing legislation that will enable the government to safely transition service users from the Direct Pay service to Collect and Pay.
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Providing specialist developed and delivered training and support for CMS staff to consistently identify and respond to domestic, including economic, abuse, with a particular focus on how the CMS is used to coerce and control victim survivors.
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Improving safeguarding processes and procedures to help survivors safely engage with the CMS to manage their children’s entitlements. This includes basic procedures for alerting survivors to any changes or contact with a perpetrator that could increase their risk of harm, and ensuring access to specialist, trauma informed support.
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Using stronger enforcement of non-payment and fraudulent non-disclosure of earnings responses, including improved automatic maintenance calculations based on cross-agency information sharing, proactive monitoring and investigations that do not place a disproportionate burden on victim-survivors to report or prove fraud, and a zero tolerance approach to non-compliance. The reforms should also close loopholes that allow abusers to misuse the enforcement process to evade accountability and urgently introduce secondary legislation to implement commitments made in the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023.
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Removing barriers to the Collect and Pay service, by guaranteeing that victim-survivors can remain on Collect and Pay indefinitely to safely manage their children’s entitlements and waiving Collect and Pay fees for all parents, so that they are not financially penalised for relying on the CMS to safely manage their children’s support.
The full briefing, including detailed findings and a complete list of recommendations, can be found here https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Gingerbread-CMS-and-DA-Report-2026-WEB.pdf
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3 hours 41 minutes ago
by Joanna Gurr
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