CHANGES
TO CHILD MAINTENANCE REGULATIONS
“New Child Maintenance Regulations come
into force on 30th June 2013, meaning parents making application for
Child Maintenance Service (CMS) will have to pay application fees, ongoing
administration fees to the CMS and Government administration fees on top….
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- All new applicants to the Child Maintenance
Service from 30 June 2014 will be charged a one-off application
fee of £20.
This application fee will not apply to clients who
- are a victim of domestic violence and have
reported this to an appropriate person or organisation, including
a solicitor
- are residents of Northern Ireland or
- are aged under 19.
From 11 August 2014 collection charges will be charged
to both parents in relation to all cases in the Child Maintenance
Service Collect and Pay system on or after that date.
The charges will be 4% deducted from the child maintenance payments
received the parent with care and 20% added on to the child maintenance
liability for the non-resident parent.
Resolution has been informed by the DWP that the Child Maintenance
Service is writing to all CMS clients (around 120,000 cases) advising
them of the introduction of collection charges from 11 August 2014 and
flagging up the free Direct Pay option and how to apply for this (or,
in the case of parents with care, how to express an option to stick
with Collect and Pay if they still want this).
You can find examples of the letters being sent to
clients on the DWP website
Existing clients already within the Collect and Pay system have ‘a
choice’ or ‘a cooling off period’ to allow them to avoid paying
collection charges from 11 August 2014. They can decide whether to
continue using the Collect and Pay system and be charged, or to avoid
the collection fee by either working out arrangements between
themselves or using the free Direct Pay system.
- CMS Non-resident parents with arrears (but no
enforcement action as yet) will be given until 5 August 2014 to
clear their arrears. If they do so, they will be able to opt
for a Direct Pay arrangement.
- Enforcement charges against paying parents will
apply within the Child Maintenance Service taken on or after 30
June 2014, where the Child Maintenance Service has to take
enforcement action against non-payers in the Collect and Pay
system.
These charges will not apply to existing
enforcement action taken prior to 30 June 2014.
We will be monitoring the impact of the charges and will keep you
informed of any developments.
Ending CSA
arrangements
- First contact to ‘nil assessed’ clients also
begins today 30 June – all clients will be notified by letter,
they won’t be receiving a phone call or email.
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Statement from the Department of Work and Pensions:
Fees and
charges for the Child Maintenance Service
Fees and charges are being introduced from today (30 June 2014) for
use of the Child Maintenance Service.
A letter is being issued to all Child Maintenance Service clients
giving them 6 weeks’ notice that they will be charged if the Child
Maintenance Service collects and pays out child maintenance on their
behalf.
We have already written to a selection of Child Maintenance Service
clients to encourage them to consider making a family-based
arrangement or Direct Pay arrangement so they can avoid paying fees.
From 30 June, an application to the Child Maintenance Service will
cost £20 for most applicants when the application is processed and a
child maintenance calculation is performed.
For parents who apply to the Child Maintenance Service and can
arrange payment directly between themselves there are no further fees
to pay. This is called “Direct Pay”. This service offers the
reassurance to clients of knowing that if payments aren’t made the
Child Maintenance Service can step in and make sure any missed
payments are collected.
Parents who can’t use Direct Pay can use the Collect and Pay service,
where the Child Maintenance Service will collect child maintenance
from the paying parent and give it to the receiving parent. The fees
for this service will be 20% for paying parents and 4% for receiving
parents.
Ending
Child Support Agency (CSA) child maintenance arrangements
From today, we have also has started sending letters to CSA clients
about ending their current child maintenance arrangements. All
affected parents will be contacted between now and 2017 to give them
notice that their arrangement will end. Most clients will get 6
months’ notice and will be offered support from Child Maintenance
Options to put a new arrangement in place.
When their CSA arrangements end, parents have the option to:
- Make a family-based arrangement – where they
arrange between themselves what to pay and when.
- Make an application to the Child Maintenance
Service.
As long as clients’ cases are managed by the CSA they will not be
charged for using the service.
Find out more about child maintenance arrangements at www.cmoptions.org
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