Committees

Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service

Inquiry

Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service is the third and final part of the Committee’s wider inquiry into children in poverty, following on from the Measurement and targets, and no recourse to public funds.

The Committee looked into:

  • How many children in the UK live in separated families? What proportion of these children are living in poverty?
  • What prevents parents from establishing family-based arrangements?
  • What barriers are there for parents when trying to access support from Child Maintenance Service?
  • How can DWP improve the CMS to better support children living in poverty?

Read the call for evidence to learn more about the inquiry.

Read our report.

This inquiry is no longer accepting evidence

The deadline for submissions was Friday 8 July 2022.

Upcoming events

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Past events

Wednesday 18 January 2023
9:15am Public
Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service - Oral evidence 18 January 2023
9:15am
  • Viscount Younger of Leckie (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at Department for Work and Pensions)
  • Arlene Sugden (Director, Child Maintenance Service at Department for Work and Pensions)
  • Hilda Massey (Director, State Pensions, Child Maintenance and Devolution at Department for Work and Pensions)
Room 15, Palace of Westminster
Wednesday 2 November 2022
9:15am Public
Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service - Oral evidence 2 November 2022
9:15am
  • Joshua Reddaway (Director Work and Pensions Value for Money at National Audit Office)
Room 5, Palace of Westminster
Wednesday 19 October 2022
9:15am Public
Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service - Oral evidence 19 October 2022
9:15am
  • Dr Christine Davies (Honorary Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at Royal Holloway University of London)
  • Dr Jon Symonds (Senior Lecturer in Social Work with Children and Families at University of Bristol)
  • Professor Esther Dermott (Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at University of Bristol)
  • Dr Mia Hakovirta (Department of Social Research at Turku University, Finland)
Room 5, Palace of Westminster
Wednesday 7 September 2022
9:30am Public
Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service - Oral evidence 7 September 2022
9:30am
  • Cristina Odone (Head of the Family Policy Unit at Centre for Social Justice (CSJ))
  • Meghan Meek-O’Connor (Senior Policy Advisor at Save the Children)
10:30am
  • Victoria Benson (CEO at Gingerbread)
  • Caitlin Logan (Policy, Research and Influencing Lead at One Parent Families Scotland)
  • Michael Lewkowicz (Director of Communications & Business Manager at Families Need Fathers)
Room 6, Palace of Westminster

Contact us

We can’t usually help you with an individual problem or a specific complaint.

  • Email: workpencom@parliament.uk
  • Phone: 020 7219 8976 | 020 7219 1679 (Media)
  • Address: Work and Pensions Committee | House of Commons | London | SW1A 0AA