Call for inquiry over deaths of parents driven to despair by DWP’s Child Maintenance Service

Campaigners have called for an inquiry into the deaths of parents driven to despair by the refusal of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to correct errors in child support demands.

They believe DWP figures show that the death rates of separated parents who help pay to support a child through DWP’s Child Maintenance Service (CMS) – known as “paying parents” – are far higher than average.

DWP has resisted releasing detailed information on how many paying parents are dying every year, and how many are taking their own lives.

But an examination by Disability News Service (DNS) of some of the information that has been released to campaigners in the last five years suggests DWP has questions to answer.

DNS was first approached about the concerns earlier this year by Ian Briggs, whose son Gavin took his own life five years ago.

The coroner at his inquest refused to investigate his father’s claims that the actions of the CMS had contributed to Gavin’s decision to take his own life, even though the agency had wrongly claimed he owed £16,000 in support payments, after claiming his income was £76,000 rather than the £26,000 it was in reality.

Ian Briggs and fellow campaigners at the research and campaign group STOPSuicides UK, which focuses on the harm caused by CMS, believe many paying parents are dying due to CMS’s actions.

Briggs said he believed CMS had played “a huge part” in his son’s decision to take his own life by sending him computer-generated letters that failed to reflect that he was paying his child maintenance regularly and getting his case “catastrophically wrong”.

He said he believed this was happening to thousands of paying parents.

He told DNS: “Knowing that this organisation drove my son to his death and there is nothing I can do about it is incredibly frustrating.

“I know that other people are being put through the same emotional nightmare that I am because of the CMS IT system.

“I will keep campaigning to expose the CMS IT system failures and its catastrophic effects as I made a promise to Gavin at his graveside [that] I would fight for justice.”

The statistics available to DNS do not prove anything conclusively, but they do suggest a need for a detailed investigation of the concerns and the statistics.

Although it is impossible to draw clear conclusions, they appear to show the deaths rates are two or even three times higher for paying parents than the general population*.

Briggs said the increased death rates of paying parents can be explained by CMS automated processes, unjustified demands for arrears, and “systematic maladministration”, which he said have contributed to significant mental distress and many suicides.

And he said that – just as with wider DWP issues – coroners rarely pick up on these links during inquests into suicides.

Briggs is not the first grieving relative to have raised concerns about CMS.

In January 2023, during the final session of an inquiry into CMS by the Commons work and pensions committee, Labour MP Debbie Abrahams told of a paying parent whose arrears had been inaccurately assessed “and the frustration that he found ultimately led to him taking his life”.

She said his mother had previously written to DWP “expressing real concerns about mental health” but there had been no reply.

She added: “This is not the first time. We had a panel before Christmas that also provided data about the suicides of paying parents who were inaccurately assessed in terms of the arrears that they owed.

“This is tens of thousands of pounds that they said that they owe, leaving literally pounds for them to exist on.”

She asked Tory work and pensions minister Viscount Younger if DWP collected data on suicides of paying parents.

He told her: “Could I just say that, being new into the department, I am already aware, having seen some of the correspondence that I have had to look at and sign off on, of some absolutely tragic cases?

“It is absolutely appalling that cases can lead to people taking their own lives.

“That is dreadful and we must look at all ways in which we can avoid that or have systems and processes that do not lead to that.”

Arlene Sugden, director of CMS, then confirmed that her service did not collect data on suicides of paying parents, although when it was made aware of a suicide it could be analysed through DWP’s secret internal process review (IPR) system.

The committee’s subsequent report, published in April 2023, found that much of its evidence “described severe hardship and distress experienced by paying parents”.

One paying parent had told the committee how he had been “diagnosed with severe depression and severe anxiety last year as a result of the long, torturous battle” with CMS.

He said: “I have read lots of evidence from DWP figures that shows parents trapped in the CMS system have excess deaths well into the hundreds each year.

“Having experienced this system this is absolutely no surprise. I don’t think driving parents to suicide is helping poverty issues or children’s start in life.”

Despite Viscount Younger’s comments, a DWP spokesperson told DNS this week: “Suicide is a complex issue and our thoughts are with the families of those affected.

“We strongly deny any suggestion of a causal link between the Child Maintenance Service and suicide of users, and to suggest otherwise is dangerous and misleading.

“The Child Maintenance Service manages 760,000 arrangements annually and is dedicated to providing a safe and supportive service for all parents.

“Our staff are thoroughly trained to assist vulnerable clients, including those at risk of suicide, self-harm, or domestic abuse.”

Last month, the new work and pensions committee – now chaired by Abrahams – launched an inquiry into CMS, including how to “improve the way it deals with families”.

Abrahams said at the time that there were “concerns over how it calculates payments, how it handles people who have sometimes been through long ordeals, and over its enforcement.

“Increasingly, we’re hearing as MPs from people about how unhappy they are with how they have been treated by the service.

“This applies to both paying and receiving parents.”

Two years ago, a government response to a petition from Craig Bulman, who had been left with PTSD after the Child Support Agency (CMS’s predecessor) mishandled his case – it eventually paid him a £5,000 consolatory payment – said DWP “strongly denies any suggestion of a causal link between the Child Maintenance Service and suicide”.

Bulman said this week that the “catastrophic failings” by the Child Support Agency (CSA) had left him homeless, triggered a mental breakdown, forced him to leave work, and caused the loss of his job.

In his petition, he had raised concerns “regarding the number of suicides that have been linked with the activities of the [CSA] and the CMS, [and] notes that incorrect assessments and inflation of arrears may have played a factor in the mental health of those who [took their own lives]”.

Conservative work and pensions minister Mims Davies said in response to his petition that the department “recognises that socio-economic factors such as deprivation, unmanageable debt, poor housing, and unemployment may increase suicide risk.

“We also recognise that, tragically, some people experiencing an emotional crisis, such as a family break-up, may be more prone to suicidal ideation, but we refute the idea that this is attributable to the CMS in any way.”

Information released following a long freedom of information battle with DNS provides further proof of concerns.

The Advanced Customer Support report shows that, in 2022-23, there were two secret IPRs which identified “learning” from cases of serious harm or even death involving CMS.

In one of the cases, the IPR concluded that there was “no evidence to show any additional support was considered when the Paying Parent indicated they may harm themselves”.

DWP said this week that it did not recognise any data or evidence that indicated a causal link between CMS and suicides among paying parents.

It said it was looking at issues of affordability and was developing ways to refer paying parents to support such as mediation, financial support and debt advice, and was well-prepared to respond quickly and effectively if it became aware that a customer’s safety was at risk.

*Office for National Statistics figures (see table 10) show the overall rate of deaths in 2022 for males in England and Wales was 0.12 per cent for those aged 35 to 39, 0.18 per cent for those aged 40 to 44, 0.28 per cent for those 45 to 49, and 0.42 per cent for those aged 50 to 54.

DNS calculations from DWP’s Stat-Xplore system suggest that more than 90 per cent of paying parents are aged 54 or younger, while DWP figures show that, in the quarter ending March 2022, of 544,600 paying parents, 93 per cent were male.

In a freedom of information response from DWP seen by DNS, DWP said there were 4,959 reported deaths of paying parents between 2020 and 2022 (which suggests there were about 2,480 a year).

This would mean that roughly 0.46 per cent of paying parents died in 2021-2022 (2,480/544,600), far higher than the overall death rates in England and Wales.

**The following organisations are among those that might be able to offer support if you have been affected by the issues raised in this article:  Mind, Papyrus, Rethink, Samaritans, and SOS Silence of Suicide

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