BBC Panaroma: parents ‘pushed to breaking point’ by Child Maintenance Service

The BBC TV Panorama programme has investigated the workings of the Child Maintenance Service – ‘Child Maintenance: Parents under Pressure’ [broadcast 17th August, 2026] Panorama – BBC iPlayer.

It was not short of personal stories of both ‘receiving parents’ (mostly mothers) and ‘paying parents’ (mostly fathers) who felt the struggles with each other were made worse by the CMS itself.

As a CMS “stakeholder” Shared Parenting Scotland has regular meetings with Department of Work and Pensions senior civil servants and, from time to time, with the relevant UK Government Minister. Chief Executive, Kevin Kane, will be joining a scheduled meeting with the Minister, Baroness Sherlock, alongside Sam Morfey, Chief Executive of Both Parents Matter early in September.

Work has been under way for close to two years on possible areas of CMS reform. Legislation is expected in the 2027-28 parliamentary session at Westminster. At the beginning of the process it seemed anything was on the table for discussion but as time has passed it has become apparent that the basic structure will remain as it is.

There will be a change to the threshold for ‘in-year’ recalculation from 25% to 15%. The ‘Collect and Pay’ option will be largely removed in favour of Direct Pay.

The CMS reports that it’s caseload has risen from 450,000 in 2019 to 830,000 while staff numbers have fallen. With such numbers fundamental change is unlikely. That leaves hundreds of thousands of parents believing the other is weaponising the system. When their parents are aggrieved at each other it not only affects children’s views of their mother and father but also their sense of themselves.

The liability of the paying parent based on the number of overnights a child spends with each parent becomes a perpetual friction that neither parent needs. The child’s experience of their own parents character and capacity is an endemic casualty.

It is often lost in the blank and white rhetoric that after separation, both parents are usually worse off.

Influencing change in legislation is one route to make the system more humane. Most MPs of all parties acknowledge that the biggest element of their constituent casework concerns CMS distress. Let your MP know your view on the imminent reforms. There will be public consultations.

Challenging decisions through the CMS’s review procedure and then at independent tribunals is another route to evolution. Tribunals have to work within the law as it is but can change perceptions of how parenting is shared.

For example, it used to be a box to be ticked that the parent in receipt of Child Benefit would be taken to be the main and thus receiving parent where a decision on shared parenting is finely balanced. It has been clarified from within CMS that that is no longer instruction given to call handlers. They are instructed to look for the reality of parenting arrangements.

What they need is evidence from the paying parent who asserts that they are sharing parenting substantially or equally – diaries, independent confirmation of appointments, receipts. Our experience of many paying parents is that they don’t gather the evidence until it is too late or because they are embarrassed to do so, thinking they are letting their children down.

Some of the evidence that works against paying parents that we have seen quoted up to tribunal level in Scotland takes the first name on the child’s data record at school (SEEMiS) as indicating more parental involvement. We have pointed out that this indicates plain ignorance within tribunals of how school registration works and has nothing to do with parenting. We believe eventually a tribunal will acknowledge this and correct the misunderstanding – if we keep pressure up.

It is largely the same with GP registration. GPs work within the General Medical Council Guidance on sharing of information with separated parents. We have also challenged their Guidance with the GMC on the basis that it doesn’t serve the interests of the ‘patient’ – the child – to deal only with one parent.

Chances to change the law at Westminster don’t come often. The prospects don’t look good for next year at this point. We can all keep up our efforts by reminding MPs that the story isn’t black and white. Problems can be solved where there’s a will to accept there’s more than one story to tell.

Other systems, like GP and schools registrations, devised for their own administrative convenience need to ensure they don’t become surrogates for a different unrelated purpose.

Let’s keep the pressure up.

[This is an updated version of our Panorama preview story, published on 17th August 2026.]