Petition · past parliament · Department for Work and Pensions
Subject the Child Maintenance Service to review and ensure it's fit for purpose
Closed
4,741 signatures
What the petition asks
To review how the Child Maintenance Service operates, to:
1) ensure transparency, consistency and clarity when assisting callers;
2) ensure that ALL incomes from the paying parent are taken into consideration from the outset of claims, and
3) speed up the mechanisms to enforce payment.
1) ensure transparency, consistency and clarity when assisting callers;
2) ensure that ALL incomes from the paying parent are taken into consideration from the outset of claims, and
3) speed up the mechanisms to enforce payment.
The charity Gingerbread states that around a fifth of families with children in the UK are single parent. When separated parents disagree over Child Maintenance, payment must be claimed through the Child Maintenance Service. But this service is not fit for purpose and is letting children (living in single parent families) down across the UK. The inefficiency of this service is one of the key contributors to half of single parent families (49%) living in poverty, despite the fact that 69% of single parents work.
Timeline
| 10 Mar 2020 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 10 Sep 2020 | Closed to new signatures |
Key facts
Signatures
4,741
Status
Closed
Department
Department for Work and Pensions
Opened
10 Mar 2020
Closed
10 Sep 2020
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.