New laws will give victims of domestic abuse protection from having direct contact with abusive ex-partners about child maintenance. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says parents will be given the choice to allow the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to collect and make payments on their behalf, without the consent of an abusive ex-partner.
The DWP said: "This will prevent perpetrators from using child maintenance as a form of ongoing financial abuse and control and mean survivors will not have to have contact with their ex-partner if there is evidence of domestic violence."
The CMS will also have new powers to report suspected cases of financial coercion to the Crown Prosecution Service to help bring abusers to justice. One-to-one support for survivors will be piloted and domestic abuse training for staff improved.
The changes come after the DWP commissioned Dr Samantha Callan, a leading expert on domestic abuse, in the autumn of 2021 to review CMS support for parents who had experienced domestic abuse in setting up a child maintenance arrangement.
"All CMS customers are asked if they have experienced or witnessed domestic abuse," said the DWP. "If customers feel that their specific claim will put them in danger, they will be signposted to support – such as the National Domestic Violence Helpline for example – and asked to contact the police about their case.
"If a customer is in immediate danger, the CMS will offer advice on contacting the police and, if customers do not feel able to do this, then to ask whether customers are content for the CMS to call the police on their behalf."
Minister for Work and Pensions Viscount Younger of Leckie said: “Domestic abuse is an abhorrent crime and we are doing everything in our power to support survivors to make child maintenance claims safely and without fear.
“We have strengthened the ways in which the Child Maintenance Service can support survivors in making a maintenance claim safely. I am grateful to Dr Samantha Callan for recognising this and for her vital work which will protect more parents from abuse, bring more perpetrators to justice and help keep families safe.”
