News

Publication of Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission Research Report No.3: Evaluation of the Child Maintenance Options service

15/07/2011

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission has today published findings from a quantitative research report based on an evaluation of the Child Maintenance Options telephone service. The main aim of the study was to assess the effect of the service on parents who used it between February and September 2009. The study also collected information on the profile of users of the telephone service, their use and views of the service and the maintenance arrangements they made.

Key findings from the research were:

The majority of parents were referred from Jobcentre Plus, were lone mothers and from low income households. The findings looked at differences between those referred from Jobcentre Plus and the ‘General’ group who reached the service via other routes, such as calling the service direct.

Parents were positive about how helpful they found their contact with the Child Maintenance Options service overall: 67% reported that it was either very helpful or quite helpful.

More than half of parents (56%) had a maintenance arrangement eight or nine months after contact with Child Maintenance Options. Some of these will already have had arrangements in place before contacting the service. Around a quarter of parents made an arrangement following their contact with the Child Maintenance Options service (24%), although not necessarily as a result of that contact.

Eight or nine months after contact with the Child Maintenance Options service:

  • The General group were more likely to have an arrangement in place (72%) than the Jobcentre Plus group (51%).
  • Parents who were more recently separated, and where there was regular contact between the non-resident parent and the child, and between ex-partners, were more likely to have a maintenance arrangement in place.
  • Family-based arrangements were the most common with 56% of parents with arrangements reporting this type of arrangement, whereas 41% of parents reported having an arrangement made through the Child Support Agency (CSA).
  • 44% of parents did not have a maintenance arrangement. The most commonly-given reasons for not having an arrangement were the ex-partner being unwilling (29%) or unable (34%) to pay for maintenance, and not knowing where the ex-partner was living (29%).

The research sought to establish whether the parent had an arrangement in place around nine months after their contact with the Child Maintenance Options service. The research estimated that 7% of parents referred to Child Maintenance Options from Jobcentre Plus had a maintenance arrangement in place, following their contact with Child Maintenance Options that they otherwise would not have had. The Child Maintenance Options service is most effective for those parents who have the most in-depth and personalised contact with the service.

Read the Evaluation of the Child Maintenance Options Service (Report summary) (PDF)

Read the Evaluation of the Child Maintenance Options Service (Full report) (PDF)