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This petition was submitted during the 2019 to 2024 Parliament

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Closed Subject the Child Maintenance Service to review and ensure it's fit for purpose

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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.

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.

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  • Related activity

    Share your experiences of the Child Maintenance Service

    On Thursday 24 June, Lord Farmer will lead a debate on Child Maintenance Service reform in the House of Lords.

    To inform the debate, Lord Farmer wants to hear about your experiences of the Child Maintenance Service. He may quote your contribution directly during his debate, so please don’t share anything you wouldn’t want to be made public.

    Find out more and share your experiences with Lord Farmer here: https://houseofcommons.shorthandstories.com/child-maintenance-service-/index.html

    Videos of the debate, which is known as a Question for Short Debate (QSD), the transcript and other relevant material will be accessible shortly after the debate on this webpage.

    The deadline for contributions is 12noon on Wednesday 23 June.

    What is a Question for Short Debate?

    Four short debates ('Questions for Short Debate') take place on Thursday every five weeks in Grand Committee of the House of Lords, away from the main Chamber. These debates are an opportunity for members of the House of Lords to discuss important current issues and draw the Government’s attention to concerns. A Government Minister or spokesperson responds at the end to the issues raised in the debate.

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    If this petition gets 10,000 signatures, government will respond to it.

    If this petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

    This petition will stay open until 10 September 2020.