OPFS response to House of Lords debate on Reforming the Child Maintenance Service
On 8 June, the House of Lords debated the Public Services Committee’s report, Reforming the Child Maintenance Service, which concluded that significant reform is needed to ensure more children receive the financial support they are entitled to.
15/06/2026
News
Child maintenance calculations
The Public Services Committee report highlighted concerns that the child maintenance calculation has not kept pace with the costs of raising children, lacks fairness and transparency and called for a review of how child maintenance is calculated.
During the debate, DWP Minister Baroness Maeve Sherlock confirmed that the threshold for reviewing child maintenance calculations will be reduced from 25% to 15%, allowing calculations to respond more quickly to changes in the paying parent’s income.
Our response:
We welcome the reduction in the threshold for reviewing child maintenance calculations, one of the recommendations in the report, Better for everyone: a new vision for child maintenance, developed with single parents as part of the Transforming Child Maintenance project, led by OPFS in partnership with IPPR Scotland and Fife Gingerbread
Against this backdrop, it is very concerning that the UK Government has dropped plans for a public consultation on child maintenance calculations. Families should have the opportunity to help shape the broader reforms needed to build a fairer and more transparent system.
- Satwat Rehman, OPFS Chief Executive
Barriers, delays and support for victim-survivors
The report and debate highlighted concerns about poor communication, enforcement delays, lack of trust in the Child Maintenance Service and whether the service is doing enough to support victim-survivors of domestic and economic abuse.
Our response
Single parent families have told us that navigating the Child Maintenance Service can feel like a game of snakes and ladders. Too often, parents become trapped in a repeated cycle of delays and setbacks, often having to repeat traumatic experiences only to find themselves back where they started. For some, the process becomes so exhausting that they give up altogether, leaving children without the financial support they are entitled to and placing even greater pressure on families already struggling to make ends meet.
Any future reforms must ensure that safety is at the heart of the child maintenance system and that families are not forced to retell often traumatic stories and navigate unnecessary obstacles in order to secure the financial support their children are entitled to.
- Satwat Rehman, OPFS Chief Executive
Child maintenance as a child poverty issue
The committee was very clear that child maintenance should be understood as a poverty reduction tool, not simply an administrative system.
Our response
This reflects a central finding of the Transforming Child Maintenance project: child maintenance is one of the most important tools available for increasing family incomes and reducing child poverty.
Modelling by IPPR Scotland as part of the Transforming Child Maintenance project shows that around 210,000 children across the UK could be lifted out of poverty if they received the financial support they are entitled to. We need action that matches the scale of that opportunity
- Satwat Rehman, OPFS Chief Executive
Abolishing Direct Pay
While Ministers remain committed to abolishing Direct Pay in favour of Collect & Pay, peers raised concerns whether replacing Direct Pay alone would address the wider challenges facing separated families.
Our response
Simply replacing Direct Pay with a revised Collect & Pay service will not address the underlying problems that prevent too many children from receiving the financial support they are entitled to.
We are calling for a universal child maintenance payment platform, open to all separated families and funded through the tax system. Parents would remain free to make their own arrangements, but where those arrangements break down, the system would step in to ensure children continue to receive the financial support they are entitled to.
This would make payments simpler and more convenient for families and help resolve non-payment more quickly. Families should not have to pay fees to secure money their children are entitled to.
- Satwat Rehman, OPFS Chief Executive
Next steps
Many of the issues identified by the Public Services Committee are reflected in the recommendations developed through the Transforming Child Maintenance project.
With single parents, we have developed a clear roadmap for a fairer, more transparent and more effective child maintenance system.
The evidence is clear and the need for reform is widely recognised. Until that recognition is matched by a commitment to act, too many children will continue to miss out on the financial support they are entitled to.