About us
The Commission is the Non-Departmental Public Body with responsibility for the child maintenance system in Great Britain.
The Commission’s primary objective is to maximise the number of effective child maintenance arrangements in place for children who live apart from one or both of their parents, whether arranged collaboratively between parents through a family-based arrangement, through the courts or through the statutory schemes.
The Commission has three core functions:
- to promote the financial responsibility that parents have for their children;
- to provide information and support on the different child maintenance options available;
- to provide an efficient statutory maintenance service, with effective enforcement.
It has two delivery bodies: Child Maintenance Options, which provides the information and support service, and the Child Support Agency, which administers the statutory schemes. It is currently developing a new statutory service, to be launched from 2012.
The Commission is accountable to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for its performance. For further details about the relationship between the Commission and the Department for Work and Pensions, please see the Framework Document.
The Commission’s key priority is to support and implement the government’s vision for the future of child maintenance. In January 2011, the government published its Green Paper Strengthening families, promoting parental responsibility: the future of child maintenance. The government is seeking to rebalance the child maintenance system so that more parents are supported to make their own family-based arrangements. The new, more efficient and effective statutory service, due to launch in 2012, will be available for parents who are unable to come to their own arrangement.
Under the Public Bodies Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission and its three functions will transfer to the Department for Work and Pensions.
The Government is currently consulting on the transfer, more information is available on the Department for Work Pensions' website.