Review CMS safeguards to prevent financial abuse and coercive control

Review how the CMS detects and acts on concerns of financial abuse. We believe survivors need better access to support to navigate systems that could enable continued abuse after separation.

We believe the Child Maintenance Service and family courts are outdated and could enable ongoing abuse. There are concerns that abusers may be able to use legal processes like Child Arrangement Orders and financial control via CMS to continue coercive behaviour post-separation. We feel these systems lack adequate safeguards to protect survivors and children from harm. We feel a review is needed to ensure the CMS is trauma-informed, survivor-centred, and doesn't enable abuse.

The Government recognises the serious harm caused by domestic abuse, including coercive control and financial abuse, and is committed to ensuring that public services do not inadvertently enable further harm following separation. While child maintenance is intended to support children’s day-to‑day living costs, we understand concerns that contact or financial arrangements can be misused to continue controlling behaviour, and we take these concerns seriously.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a comprehensive set of safeguards to support parents who may be at risk of domestic abuse. All CMS caseworkers receive specialist training to help them recognise a wide range of abusive behaviours, including coercive and controlling behaviour. This training reflects Home Office statutory guidance and is reviewed every six months to ensure staff remain fully equipped to support parents in vulnerable situations.

In addition to training, caseworkers have access to a Domestic Abuse Plan which sets out clear operational steps for responding to disclosures of abuse. This is supported by a regularly reviewed list of external specialist organisations to ensure parents are signposted to appropriate support. These tools help CMS staff to identify concerns early, respond appropriately, and support parents to navigate the service safely, with adjustments made where abuse is disclosed.

The CMS can also take practical measures to reduce the risk of ongoing coercive control. In some Direct Pay cases, the CMS may act as an intermediary to minimise the need for direct contact between parents. Caseworkers can also provide advice on measures such as setting up bank accounts with a centralised sort code to help prevent a parent’s location from being traced. For parents with the most complex needs, a specialist casework team provides targeted support, works closely with families to ensure safeguarding concerns are fully considered, and helps prevent victims from having to repeat stories of abuse.

The Government also recognises that concerns about coercive control can extend beyond child maintenance and into wider legal processes following separation, including proceedings in the family courts. This Government is committed to ensuring that the family court system fully supports survivors of domestic abuse and delivers the right outcomes for them and their children. The family court should never be a tool for perpetrators to continue abuse, and there are protections in place to help prevent this. Working with partners across the family justice system, the Government is delivering long‑term reform to ensure the system is fair, accessible and firmly focused on the welfare of the child.

As part of this work, on 17 March 2026 the Deputy Prime Minister announced the national rollout of the Child Focused Model by the end of the current Spending Review period. The Government press release can be found here: Children to get swifter justice as new family court approach expands nationally - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/children-to-get-swifter-justice-as-new-family-court-approach-expands-nationally). The model is designed to improve the experience of children and families in private law proceedings by strengthening the early identification of risk, increasing children’s participation, and providing specialist support for domestic abuse survivors. The model currently operates in 10 of 43 family court areas across England and Wales, and the Government has committed £17 million to support further expansion in 2026/27.

The Department for Work and Pensions has also committed, through the cross-government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, to upskill all frontline staff to intervene early on VAWG including the CMS workforce.

Furthermore, the Government intends to legislate to remove the CMS Direct Pay service when Parliamentary time allows. Moving to a single streamlined service will benefit victims and survivors of domestic abuse in several ways, such as by preventing unwanted contact between parents, and removing an opportunity for perpetrators of economic control and coercion to use those behaviours in the context of the service. It also removes the need for the receiving parent to report non-compliance as is currently the case on Direct Pay, which some parents may not feel comfortable doing because of the risk of provoking retaliation. Ahead of those legislative changes, we are strengthening support by streamlining the process of moving parents from Direct Pay to Collect and Pay where appropriate, and by improving the clarity of our communication about the support available for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and how they can access it.

The Department continues to engage with the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and specialist stakeholders to ensure the CMS evolves and improves its safeguarding approach. Policies and processes are kept under review to ensure survivors can safely access child maintenance and receive the support they need with confidence.

Department for Work and Pensions