There will be no immediate changes to how Child Support Agency cases are managed and clients will be contacted when there are any changes.
A limited number of Child Support Agency clients may see their cases moved to the Child Maintenance Service. This will only happen when a new application is made to the Child Maintenance Service naming a paying parent who already has an existing Child Support Agency case. In this situation, the Child Maintenance Service will automatically open a case for the paying parent and any receiving parents they pay child maintenance to.
After the Child Maintenance Service has been shown to be working well, the process of closing existing Child Support Agency cases will begin. Parents will then have the opportunity of deciding whether to make a family-based arrangement or apply to the Child Maintenance Service. Support will be provided by Child Maintenance Options to help them do this.
Parents will be given six months notice that their case is to close.
This process of case closure will take around three years and affect around two million parents. In the meantime, it’s important parents keep paying their regular child maintenance payments.
Final go-ahead for cases to close is subject to the approval of Parliament.
