Petition · past parliament

Child maintenance needs to update their domestic abuse policy

Rejected 14 signatures

What the petition asks

Child maintenance service is a well-intentioned system. However, as it stands, it does not support victims/survivors of domestic abuse appropriately.
The understanding of domestic abuse has evolved in the last decade and their policy needs to be up-to-date and sensitive to cases.
Review all faulty processes that can result in perpetrators having more control over victims.
CMS says that even in cases of high risk DV they cannot enforce “collect and pay” and need to give perpetrators a chance of “direct pay”. This colludes with financial abuse practices commonly used by perpetrators.
CMS also needs two proofs of address to be able to start the case, resulting in early closure of cases and a sense of an additional blow to survivors of abuse. The system needs to be reviewed.

Why it was rejected

It was not clear what the petition asked the UK Government or Parliament to do.

Petitions need to call on the Government or Parliament to take a specific action.

We understand that you are concerned about how child maintenance claims are handled in respect of victims of domestic abuse, but it's not clear if you want the Government to review how these claims are handled, if you want specific changes to be made to current policies.

You could start a new petition explaining clearly what you would like the Government or Parliament to do.

Timeline

24 Apr 2022 Petition opened for signatures
27 Apr 2022 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 14
Status Rejected
Rejected 27 Apr 2022

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.