Child Maintenance charges lead to drop in parents seeking help
An application charge for parents to access the new Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has led to a significant drop in the number seeking help, a charity claims. According to single parent charity...
View ArticleThe birth of the CSA: regulations, damn regulations
Back in the early 1990s I was appointed to chair appeals to a Child Support Agency (CSA) tribunal. The CSA has of course since metamorphosed into the Child Maintenance Service. I was excited and...
View Article2014 review part 2: justice for all
The first four months of the year brought great changes to the family justice system in this country. However, that did not mean that all who were to use the system found the justice they were seeking…...
View ArticleNearly £3 billion in child maintenance classed as ‘uncollectable’
The government has classified £2.9 billon of £3.9 billion in child maintenance arrears as “uncollectable”, Radio 5 Live reports. The arrears relate to family cases handled by the soon-to-be-phased-out...
View ArticleA week in family law: divorce centres, Cafcass figures and more
The family law news generator has swung back into action after the Easter break. Top stories include: That the Law Commission has been asked by the government to conduct a review of the law governing...
View ArticleMan who tried to dupe DNA test with double convicted of fraud
A 25 year old man has been convicted of fraud after attempting to evade a paternity test Thomas Kenny already had two children with his existing partner when he began an affair with a second woman, the...
View ArticleSeven out of eight CMS users are paying
Seven out of ten clients of CSA replacement the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) currently pay their liabilities, the government has announced. In a newly published set of provisional statistics...
View ArticleAre the child maintenance figures as good as they seem?
Last Thursday the Department for Work and Pensions (‘DWP’) published “Experimental statistics” relating to “Children Benefiting from an Effective Family-based Maintenance Arrangement Secured After...
View ArticleMore statistics, and more: a week in family law
Statistics once again feature prominently in this week’s family law news… First up, figures detailing the number of children benefiting from ‘effective family-based child maintenance arrangements’...
View ArticleChild Maintenance Service ‘neglecting arrears’ says Gingerbread
Child Support Agency successor organisation the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has not taken the collection of arrears seriously, a charity has claimed. Responding to figures published by the...
View ArticleChild maintenance arrears, Cafcass figures and more: a week in family law
A week of varied family law news… The Child Maintenance Service has published new figures that reveal that £35 million of arrears owed to children has accumulated, less than two years after the Child...
View ArticleWill we ever have a child support system that works?
Last week the single parent charity Gingerbread expressed concern about the arrears of child support that have accumulated since the Child Maintenance Service began accepting all new child support...
View ArticleA personal view of the year in family law, part two
As I explained in my last post, this is a very personal view of the last year in family law. I have been through all of the news stories that I have recorded over the year, and picked out the ones that...
View ArticleHappy New Year? My hopes for 2016
As a new year dawns it seems to be traditional to look ahead to what the next twelve months may have in store for us, in terms of change. Well, I may be proved wrong, but I don’t actually foresee any...
View ArticleAn update on the 2012 child maintenance scheme
Yesterday the Department for Work and Pensions (‘DWP’) published statistics for the Child Maintenance Service (‘CMS’) 2012 scheme (i.e. the current scheme), for the period August 2013 (essentially when...
View ArticleExamining the cost of relationship breakdown
A certain national newspaper is at it again, blaming relationship breakdown for all the ills of society. On this occasion we are being told (not for the first time) that those naughty people who have...
View ArticleThe child support claimant who feared intimidation
It may have been a bit thin for new family law cases of late, but there have been a couple of interesting child support decisions. The one that I want to mention here deals with a situation which must,...
View ArticleSmoke and mirrors from the government on child maintenance
“The aim of the CM reforms is to encourage and support more families to make their own collaborative arrangements and to deliver a more efficient and effective statutory service to those who really...
View ArticleA week in family law: marriage, divorce and more
It’s been a busy week for family law news, with stories ranging from marriage to divorce, and beyond. Here are the highlights. The first two stories emanated from Resolution, the association of family...
View ArticleChild Maintenance Service sees 21% increase in cases
The number of people who use the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has increased by 21 per cent, official figures reveal. The CMS had 227,000 open cases in February, according to newly published data...
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