New child maintenance charges on the way

Posted By: James

Monday 11th August 2014

The government is to introduce new charges on Monday that will have the power to affect the finances of nearly 2m children from broken families. The charges are designed to dissuade parents from using the government’s Child Maintenance Service (CMS), as a means of transferring maintenance payments between them. Non-resident parents (usually fathers) will avoid paying an extra 20% charge on top of any transfers if they make their own private arrangements instead, with mothers avoiding a 4% deduction charge on the maintenance they would otherwise receive. The move is the latest development of a new system that uses various techniques to encourage independence from the state by parents.

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