Single parents told missed child maintenance payments won’t be chased as thousands of staff are redeployed
THOUSANDS of single parents have been told their missed child maintenance payments will not be chased or enforced – due to the coronavirus crisis.
The Department for Work and Pensions which oversees the Child Maintenance Service has “redeployed” at least 10,000 staff to work on the “unprecedented” level of new Universal Credit claims.
It means the team who were in charge of chasing and enforcing missed child maintenance payments are now helping to process the more than 1.5 million new UC claims since lockdown.
It means parents may be missing out on vital cash with no way to currently recoup the money.
Single parents, who have contacted the CMS to report missing payments, have been told in a letter: “Due to COVID-19 we are unable to chase any missed or underpayments at present.”
The CMS say its remaining skeleton staff are only allowed to work on cases where the paying parent reports a drop in income due to coronavirus.
Paying parents are also temporarily able to offer verbal evidence if their income falls to cut their payments.
Previously, parents who did make payments would have to provide proof if their income changed such as pay slips, benefits information or tax returns.
The letter says the CMS are "prioritising certain types of change ahead of others", which include change to income, move to benefits or entitlement to Statutory Sick Pay.
The CMS has also suspended its investigations team and is not responding to any appeals taken to tribunal.
The service is used separated parents to arrange how much the parent who does live with the children will pay to one who does to help take care of the child.
The paying parent can make direct payments but if a paying parent fails to pay the correct amount, the CMS can change enforce payment and take it directly from the employer before the paying parent is get their pay check.
However as staff have been moved to help process UC claims, the CMS has written to parents to tell them it will not be working on changes to "service type".
This means payments will not be enforced with the Collect and Pay scheme, unless they were already on it before the coronavirus outbreak.
In a letter to one mum, the CMS said they cannot "enforce missed or short-falled payments" due to coronavirus, until "it returns to business as usual".
What is Child Maintenance?
Child Maintenance single parents are supported financially and both parents are taking responsibility for bringing up their children.
It is usually calculated according to the CMS formula which calculates maintenance based upon a set percentage of the paying parent’s gross income, and takes into account how much time the children spend at the paying parent’s house.
The single parent charity Gingerbread says it has received a number of calls from worried parents reporting the CMS isn't investigating if paying parent allowed to stop or reduce their payments.
Gingerbread has now launched a campaign to get the Government to step in and offer direct payments to single parents not receiving maintenance, without it having an impact on any other benefits.
Joe Richardson, from Gingerbread said: "Of the many families already impacted by this, most weren't even notified by the CMS, and only became aware when the maintenance payments did not arrive.
"Without these payments, single parent families will be hit with a ‘triple penalty’. Having already faced the threat of seeing their income slashed and as well as having to come up with the extra costs associated with looking after children not attending school, they are also losing out on money they rely on to put food on the table.
"Given almost half of children in single parent families already live in poverty, the consequences of these penalties are unimaginable.
“It is clear that Covid-19 will have a negative impact on both parents’ finances. However, taking money away from the households of families and children who are already struggling needn’t be an option – let alone a first resort."
The DWP did not say how many staff have been redeployed and how many staff remain at the CMS.
MORE IN MONEY
A DWP spokesperson said: “In these unprecedented times, we have seen a significant increase in the number of new claims to Universal Credit - it’s right that we look to streamline our operations, and ensure that people get the support they need.
“No one will get away with giving false information to avoid paying what they owe and all decisions carry rights of appeal, so either parent can dispute a decision.
"Those found to be abusing the system at this difficult time will find themselves subject to the full extent of our enforcement powers – including prosecution through the courts.”