Child maintenance has a pivotal role in reducing the injustice of child poverty - but as it currently operates, the Child Maintenance Service is failing far too many children.

The issues are not new. There are currently one million separated families with no child maintenance arrangement in place in the UK. The Child Maintenance System has not adequately supported families for decades in the UK. Now a House of Lords committee has launched an inquiry, hearing evidence from the Poverty Alliance just last week.

The Child Maintenance System is a maze. The Department for Work and Pension’s own data shows that 61% per cent of parents using the service are dissatisfied. A key issue is that parents are currently charged through a system called Collect and Pay, leading to children and young people not........

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