We are concerned about the prospect that the Child Maintenance Service is pursuing arrears inherited from the Child Support Agency that cannot be properly evidenced, although we acknowledge not collecting such arrears would impact the relevant receiving parent. We request that the Department, in its response to this Report, set out what its strategy is for such arrears and investigate the potential to seek alternative ways of dispensing with arrears that are poorly evidenced, to ensure that b...

We are concerned about the prospect that the Child Maintenance Service is pursuing arrears inherited from the Child Support Agency that cannot be properly evidenced, although we acknowledge not collecting such arrears would impact the relevant receiving parent. We request that the Department, in its response to this Report, set out what its strategy is for such arrears and investigate the potential to seek alternative ways of dispensing with arrears that are poorly evidenced, to ensure that both parents have faith in the sums being pursued. Type: conclusion | Number: 22 | Paragraph: 91 | Response status: under_consideration Government response: The problems with the old Child Support Agency (CSA) schemes have been well documented, and we acknowledge that it failed to adequately support families and children – this is why the CMS was introduced. The department needed to address the historic arrears that sat on the CSA systems. In short, the