DWP removes £20 charge for parents from today to 'ensure no child misses out'
manchestereveningnews.co.ukThe Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is removing the a £20 application fee from today to 'ensure no child misses out' on financial support.
From Monday, February 26, parents will no longer be charged £20 to make an application to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), which arranges how a child’s living costs will be paid when one of the parents does not live with the child.
The change comes as part of a crackdown on parents who don't pay child maintenance when they are required to. The DWP is introducing a number of reforms to give the CMS more power to recover cash from non-paying parents more efficiently. READ MORE: Martin Lewis urges everyone to check now for 'pointless payments' that could be draining bank accounts Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new feature s. As part of the reforms, the £20 application fee for parents seeking the CMS’s intervention when maintenance is not paid will be scrapped and the service will be free.
The DWP said scrapping the charge will "ensure no child misses out on vital support". Under the changes, enforcement times against parents not paying child maintenance will be slashed from six months to six weeks.
Read more on manchestereveningnews.co.uk