MP spearheading calls for review of Child Maintenance Service

A Fife MP has thrown his weight behind calls from single parents and children’s rights campaigners for a judicial review into unpaid child maintenance.

Campaigners have called for a review of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) and for effective enforcement action to be taken in the collection of maintenance arrears after new figures revealed less than 10% of the figure owed across the UK has been collected.

Peter Grant, Glenrothes and Central Fife SNP MP, is backing moves to take court action against the CMS and has demanded a new minimum maintenance payment.

Single-parent charity Fife Gingerbread believes such payments could lift 60% of in-poverty families out of their plight.

Mr Grant has long campaigned on the issue and believes the current court action raised by four mothers from Yorkshire, London, Surrey and the North West

– all of whom say they are owed between £2,000 and £8,000 dating back years – is a “moment of reckoning” for the UK Government.

He said a “root and branch review” is required.

DWP figures show 43% of children covered by Collect and Pay – CMS collection on parents’ behalf – are not receiving the maintenance to which they are legally entitled.

There are £354m of CMS arrears, yet just £31m has been collected through CMS enforcement actions.

A spokesperson for the DWP said: “No one will get away with giving false information to avoid paying what they owe, and all decisions carry rights of appeal.”