u/LHG_93

I wouldn’t normally give the DM the time of day, but this is good work!

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TL;DR: A Daily Mail investigation alleges that Britain’s Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has wrongly overcharged at least 24,400 separated parents by £4.3 million, with some being pursued for thousands they did not owe, having money taken directly from their accounts and continuing to face demands even after successfully challenging calculations. More than 80 parents reportedly came forward describing years of trying to correct errors. (The Times)

The consequences have allegedly been catastrophic: two fathers died by suicide after facing unaffordable CMS demands, while others report losing homes, falling into serious debt or suffering breakdowns. The affair is now being compared to the Post Office Horizon scandal because of accusations of faulty IT, incorrect debts and an institution refusing to accept that its calculations could be wrong. (The Times)

This is overwhelmingly a men’s issue in practice: 93% of the 730,000 CMS “paying parents” are men according to the Government’s latest statistics. (GOV.UK)

The DWP disputes the central allegation, saying there are “no systemic IT glitches” affecting CMS calculations and pointing to an official 99.5% assessment-accuracy rate for 2024/25. (The Sun)
So the allegation isn’t that fathers shouldn’t support their children. It’s that a government agency with the power to deduct money from wages and bank accounts needs extremely robust due process, accountability and a fast way of stopping enforcement when its figures are disputed or proven wrong.
When 93% of the people on the paying side of that system are men, failures in those safeguards disproportionately affect fathers.