Separated parents have described being driven to breaking point by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), the government body responsible for helping secure financial support for children after parents split up, according to accounts gathered by a Panorama investigation. Mothers said they struggled for years to get ex-partners to pay what they owed, while fathers described administrative errors that caused significant stress and anxiety. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which oversees the CMS, said that in the vast majority of cases it successfully arranges payments for children, but acknowledged there are a small number of cases where things go wrong.
The investigation, titled Child Maintenance: Parents under Pressure, was reported by Krupa Padhy and is scheduled to air on BBC One on 17 August 2026 at 20:00, running for 29 minutes, according to the official programme page. The programme is billed as an exploration of parents on both sides of the system — those who receive maintenance and those who pay it — and asks whether the arrangement is failing children and parents alike, according to BBC One's published schedule for that date.
How many families rely on the CMS?
Around four million children across England, Scotland and Wales have parents who have separated, and parents are legally required to have a maintenance arrangement in place if their child is under 16, or under 20 if still in approved education or training. Both parents remain financially responsible for their children even if they have no ongoing contact with them. Where parents cannot agree on payments themselves, they can ask the CMS to intervene and calculate what is owed, based on a formula that accounts for the paying parent's income among other factors.
The CMS currently manages more than 800,000 cases across England, Scotland and Wales, covering upward of a million children; Northern Ireland runs its own separate scheme. Demand for the service has grown sharply, with case numbers climbing by roughly 300,000 over the past five years. The DWP's most recent annual report recorded more than 1,400 complaints in the first three months of this year alone.
What went wrong for Katy?
Katy, a mother of two, turned to the CMS for help after she and her partner separated more than three years ago and could not agree on child maintenance. She told Panorama the service simply does not work. Her ex-partner is supposed to pay just over £330 a month but has fallen into arrears of almost £10,000, she said.
"Last year, I was really struggling," she said. "I did go to food banks… there's been occasions where I've wanted the kids to be able to do more, more clubs, do stuff with their friends. I've had to say no, I feel terrible."
When a paying parent fails to pay directly, the CMS can use its Collect and Pay service to take money from wages, bank accounts or benefits. As of the end of March 2026, roughly 350,000 cases were being handled this way, including some where paying parents had opted into the arrangement voluntarily. The CMS adds a 20% fee to arrears recovered from the paying parent under Collect and Pay, and separately charges the receiving parent 4% of the money owed to them.
The CMS can also pursue arrears through the courts, applying for a liability order to formally recognise a debt and enable its recovery. Yet in the first three months of this year, almost 61,000 Collect and Pay cases — affecting some 86,000 children — received no payment at all, DWP figures show.
In March last year, the CMS told Katy it would seek a liability order against her ex-partner, warning the process could take 26 weeks. As that deadline approached, she was told the order still had not been obtained. By September, the CMS again said it would apply for the order, this time covering about £6,000. Last month, she said, the service told her it could no longer confirm the address needed to serve him with paperwork, and her case is now effectively stalled while she herself falls into debt.
"I was really upset because it just came as such a shock. I thought that I was going to get somewhere and just haven't," she said. "I'm not sure I'm ever going to see the money."
Katy's former partner did not respond when approached for comment. The CMS said it had apologised for the delay in pursuing the liability order and made a consolatory payment, adding that the case has been hampered by ongoing difficulty in confirming and maintaining a reliable address for the paying parent.
What happened in Susan's case?
Susan, whose name has been changed to protect her identity because her ex-partner was abusive, said the CMS's attempts to recover money owed to her amounted to nothing.
"No matter how many hours I was working, it wasn't making up for the payments that should have been coming from the paying parent," she said.
Her ex stopped making regular payments five years ago and now owes more than £10,000. She said the shortfall forced her to skip meals. CMS financial investigators established that he had the means to pay and took him to court, but he did not appear. Susan was told a warrant had been issued but that no further action could be taken.
"They... told me they had no warrant officers," she said, describing the situation as "an embarrassment".
The CMS said it had apologised for shortcomings in Susan's case, noting that enforcement can be complex and that it is bound by statutory processes.
How has the system affected paying parents?
Complaints about the CMS are not confined to parents seeking maintenance. Around 730,000 paying parents currently have cases with the service, and some told Panorama that administrative failures have taken a toll on their mental health. Citizens Advice, the charity network offering free financial and legal guidance, said it actually receives more enquiries from paying parents than from those receiving maintenance.
Gerry, a father of two children from separate relationships, said a decade of disputes with the CMS had pushed him to his limit — including an occasion when the service mistakenly added a third child, who was not his, to his account.
"I contacted them to say I can't deal with this stress. It's causing me anxiety [and] depression," he said.
The error arose after Gerry queried arrears on his account roughly ten years ago; the CMS's investigation into the query inadvertently added the extra child. He described feeling "numb" once he discovered the mistake. The CMS later paid him £100 in compensation, and an internal note conceded the error had caused him "gross inconvenience".
Gerry said further problems followed, including being held liable for around 18 months longer than he should have been for maintenance relating to his older child. He took the case to a tribunal in October last year and won, but any relief was short-lived: because he had been paying the child's mother directly, the CMS told him he would have to recover the refund from her himself. His monthly payments then nearly tripled to £981, after the system determined he had underpaid for his younger child — a figure arrived at by folding the outstanding balance, along with arrears he was still disputing, into his ongoing payments.
"I'm instantly broke, panic attack, phoning GPs, back on medication, anxiety through the roof," Gerry said.
Marion Fellows, who served as Gerry's MP for nine years until 2024, raised his case in Parliament.
"I think Gerry's case is atrocious," she told Panorama. "What CMS have done to Gerry over the years is not right. It's unbelievable. But it's not, it's CMS."
The CMS said it had acknowledged and apologised for past failings in Gerry's case, made consolatory payments, and given him explanations and reassurance regarding ongoing payments and prior actions taken.
What has been said about reforming the system?
Concerns about the CMS were set out in a House of Lords report, Reforming the Child Maintenance Service, published in October 2025. One parent quoted in the report described enforcement as "random, abusive and unregulated", while the report itself concluded that the system "punishes the wrong people and ignores real avoidance".
In response, the government has proposed moving all parents on to Collect and Pay while lowering the fees charged. The DWP said the change would improve compliance and deliver better outcomes for children. Anyone dissatisfied with how their case has been handled can pursue the DWP's formal complaints procedure, request a mandatory reconsideration, or appeal to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal, according to government guidance on complaints and appeals.
CMS director Simon Hunter said the majority of the service's 800,000 cases involved highly satisfied users and that compliance had improved over the past three years.
"We are working hard behind the scenes to try and make sure that we can facilitate regular child maintenance payments," he said. "Where the case might be in an enforcement which is a very, very small percentage of our customer base, that journey can be quite an extensive period for customers to be in, and I can totally accept and appreciate that it can feel like it has taken a long time."
Addressing families affected by mistakes, Hunter added:
"Any opportunity for us, for myself, to improve the service, then we will absolutely take that on board... To parents who have been affected by administrative mistakes... where we have made life difficult for our customers - I absolutely apologise for that."
Gerry, reflecting on the toll the process has taken, said simply:
"It can't go on. It's too many lives being broken."
What happens next?
The Panorama investigation is due to air on BBC One on 17 August 2026 at 20:00, with a repeat broadcast scheduled for BBC Two on 22 August 2026 at 01:30, according to the programme's official listing. Separately, the government's next quarterly release of official CMS statistics is due on 29 September 2026, which should provide updated figures on cases, arrears and enforcement outcomes, according to published government statistics guidance.
