Domestic Abuse and the Child Maintenance Service Published 22 April 2026
from national single parent campaigning organisation GINGERBREAD
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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.
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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.
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We did it! Together with 1,611 signatories of our CMS open letter, we’ve taken a big step forward in our campaign to #FixTheCMS.
Yesterday, alongside an incredible group of single parent campaigners, we handed in our Child Maintenance Service (CMS) Open Letter to Baroness Sherlock, the Minister responsible for the CMS. we delivered a clear and united message to the government calling for:
- A CMS that tackles child poverty head-on.
- Clear communication for parents.
- Support for parents leaving the CMS.
- Proper resources to manage changes smoothly.
- Targets to track progress and make the system work.
What began as a goal of 500 signatures grew into:
- 1,611 signatories from across the UK.
- Backing from 14 MPs.
- Support from leading organisations including Women’s Aid, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Future Men, Surviving Economic Abuse,
End Child Poverty Coalition and Women’s Budget Group.
The current CMS is failing single parents and their children. The government must ensure its proposed changes work for the families who depend on it. Where it’s received, child maintenance cuts the child poverty rate by 25%, that’s the scale of the impact we’re fighting for.While the open letter has closed, our campaign is only getting stronger. Over the coming months, we’ll keep up the pressure for urgent reform, with single parents’ voices at the heart of it.We’ll be making more announcements soon about the next steps and how you can get involved. In the meantime, you can read more about yesterday’s hand-in.
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