Tougher sanctions for parents who fail to pay child maintenance

New regulations are being introduced to impose tougher sanctions on parents who fail to pay child maintenance.

The government says the Child Support (Enforcement) Act will see families paid faster as it gives the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) the power to use a liability order to reclaim unpaid child maintenance instead of applying to court and waiting up to 20 weeks.

The DWP will be able to impose tougher sanctions on non-paying parents such as forcing the sale of property and taking away passports and driving licences through a quick and simple administrative process. This time and money-saving change will allow the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to act swiftly, paying families faster and preventing further arrears.

DWP Minister Viscount Younger said: “This is another step in our work to strengthen our powers and improve how the Child Maintenance Service supports children of separated parents. This new law will help speed up the enforcement process to get money flowing which ultimately will be for the benefit of children.”

Before implementing this tougher enforcement action, the CMS has other options including collecting earnings direct from parents’ employers or different bank accounts where maintenance has not been paid.

Cases involving complex income or suspected fraudulent behaviour can be looked into by the CMS Financial Investigation Unit to recalculate and collect payments where parents might be declaring lower incomes but have money flowing elsewhere for example, excessive pension contributions or company dividends.

The CMS helps more than 900,000 children get the financial support they are entitled to and in the 12 months to March, collected or arranged a record £1.2 billion on their behalf. Child maintenance payments help to keep 160,000 children out of poverty each year.

At Machins, we have dedicated team of solicitors that specialise in family law matters that can assist and advise should you find yourself in maintenance arrears or chasing maintenance payments. For further information call us on 01582 514 000.