Child Maintenance Service criticised as ‘unsafe for domestic abuse survivors’

By The Press Association12th September 2016News EnglandChildrens Services, Domestic Abuse / Violence, Government / Politics, News England, Vulnerable Adults

The Government is being urged to improve the new Child Maintenance Service (CMS) after complaints it is not safe for domestic abuse survivors.

Charity Women’s Aid and single parents’ campaign group Gingerbread said they are concerned CMS staff have no specialist training, leaving some parents to drop out of the system because they feel unprotected.

Parents are being told to pay child maintenance directly to each other, requiring the parent caring for the children most of the time to supply bank details to the other party. The CMS becomes involved only if payments are missed, the report said.

The two charities said people were being left open to financial and emotional abuse, adding that some parents were too frightened to go ahead with direct payments in case their abuser got hold of their personal details.

Gingerbread chief executive Fiona Weir (pictured) said: “Child maintenance matters. It helps single parents to provide the essentials for their children, yet less than half of single-parent families get any child maintenance at all.

“This makes the role of the CMS crucial but it’s clear that, for the many survivors of domestic abuse who will be turning for the service for help, the CMS is not fit for purpose.

“The service as a whole has to get a better understanding of the support that domestic abuse survivors need. As it stands, children aren’t getting the financial support they should and survivors are being put in a vulnerable position.”

Polly Neate, chief executive of Women’s Aid, said: “There is a system-wide failure to recognise that just because a relationship has ended, it does not mean the abuse has.

“Child maintenance is often used by perpetrators as a form of post-separation abuse and financial coercion by deciding how much, and when, to pay.”

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “We are committed to giving children the best start in life and our staff are highly trained to support separated parents in very difficult circumstances.

“We do all we can to help families stay together but in the small minority of cases where that can’t happen, procedures are put in place to ensure families are protected and can’t be traced.”