A growing number of parents are speaking out after the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) incorrectly seized thousands of pounds from their bank accounts, often for debts that were years old or already resolved.
Maths teacher John Hammond, 56, from Peterborough, was shocked to discover nearly £20,000 had been taken from his account by the CMS. His children were 25 and 28, and his child support arrangement had ended more than a decade ago. "I was convinced that it was a scam," he said.
Hammond's ordeal began in 2002 when the now-defunct Child Support Agency (CSA) told him he owed £947 but decided not to collect it. In 2019, the CMS claimed he owed almost £19,000. Despite disputing it, the CMS obtained court orders and took £19,269 from his account in December 2020. He won his appeal a year later, getting the money back plus £8,000 in costs, but legal fees left him £6,000 out of pocket. "Even when you're proved right it doesn't feel like justice. It just feels like you've survived it," he said.
Similarly, Richard George, 63, from Devon, found £18,800 had been taken from his bank. In 2016, a tribunal had overturned a CSA decision, writing off over £16,000 in arrears. But in 2019, the CMS took £18,800, later admitting the arrears should never have been carried over. "It's a bit like your last money... is taken by a scammer," he said. He got his money back in 2023 but said "the damage had already been done."
The BBC spoke to more than 30 parents who reported similar issues, often linked to long-concluded arrangements. A House of Lords report in October 2025 called the CMS formula "neither fair nor transparent" and described enforcement as "random, abusive and unregulated."
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which runs the CMS, said it aims to arrange voluntary payments and uses enforcement only when parents continue not to pay. The CMS manages 800,000 arrangements, and the DWP says assessment accuracy is "consistently close to 100%." However, in 2025, the CMS received 92,700 reconsideration requests, and almost a quarter of original decisions were changed.
Abigail Wood, chief executive of Gingerbread, a charity for single-parent families, said the CMS is "failing parents and children alike." Michelle Counley from the National Association for Child Support Action (NACSA) called for "serious investment and a joined-up way of working" to resolve disputes early.
Hammond and George are among those calling for an overhaul. "Getting the money back didn't feel like a victory. It was simply the end of a long fight to recover money that CMS had no right to take in the first place," Hammond said.