Fewer parents paying nothing as Child Maintenance Service hits record

If you’re a separated parent waiting on maintenance money, the latest figures from the Child Maintenance Service suggest more of it is getting through than at any point before.

New management information from the Department for Work and Pensions, published today (Friday 23 October), shows record numbers of parents paying what they owe. Fewer are paying nothing at all. And phone calls to the service are being answered faster.

What the figures show

The data covers the period to March 2026 and looks at parents using the service’s Collect and Pay option.

Nearly 130,000 parents are now paying more than 90% of the maintenance due. That’s a record high, and around 27% more than a year earlier. It also makes them the majority of the 243,000 paying parents due to pay through Collect and Pay.

At the other end, the number of parents paying nothing has dropped by around 19% since March 2025.

The service is supporting almost 1.6 million parents across Great Britain.

How child maintenance works

Child maintenance is money towards a child’s everyday living costs, paid by the parent who doesn’t have main day-to-day care to the parent who does.

Separated parents can agree this between themselves privately (a family-based arrangement). Those who use the Child Maintenance Service have two options:

• Direct Pay: the service works out how much should be paid, and the parents arrange the payments themselves.
• Collect and Pay: the service collects the money and manages payments between the parents. This is used when parents can’t arrange payments between themselves, or when the paying parent doesn’t keep up.

The government’s Get help arranging child maintenance service sets out the different options. Parents with an existing case can manage it online through My Child Maintenance Case or contact the service by phone.

Shorter waits on the phone

The figures also point to changes in how quickly parents get through.

According to the data, 85% of calls to the service are now answered, up from 59% in summer 2024. Average waiting times have dropped from more than 28 minutes to just over 11 minutes, while more parents are choosing to manage their cases online.

What the government says

The government says child maintenance arrangements help keep around 120,000 children out of relative poverty, and it links the figures to its wider work on children and families and child poverty.

It says it is set to lift 550,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament, through measures including lifting the two-child benefit limit, which it describes as the largest reduction in child poverty since records began.

Baroness Maeve Sherlock, the government minister quoted in the announcement, said: “Our priority is simple – ensuring children get the support they are entitled to from both parents.

“As we continue to modernise the Child Maintenance Service record numbers of parents are now paying their child maintenance arrangements, helping more money reach children and supporting families right across the country.”

The minister added that most parents using the service pay without enforcement being needed.

“But, where parents don’t meet their responsibilities, we will take action to ensure kids have food on their table and shoes on their feet.”

Where to find the data

The full figures are in the Child Maintenance Service: data insights to March 2026 publication on GOV.UK, covering England, Scotland and Wales. The Department for Work and Pensions says it is releasing the data ahead of an evidence session of the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s inquiry into the Child Maintenance Service.