DAILY MAIL COMMENT: It is time to stop hounding parents to the grave over inaccurate maintenance payment demands

Published: 17:17, 24 July 2026 | Updated: 17:17, 24 July 2026 SUCH is the sprawling nature of the omnishambles at the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) that it is difficult to know where to begin. The Daily Mail’s investigation into the CMS has uncovered a disturbing pattern of conscientious middle-class parents being plagued for payments for which they are not liable and which they cannot afford to make. It is clear that the history of woeful mismanagement at the government-run agency, which processes £1.6billion in annual payments from more than 800,000 UK parents to their former partners, goes back quite some way. Figures from the National Audit Office show that by 2022 – ten years after the CMS was launched – there were 24,466 cases in which parents had been overcharged. No single reason has been identified for this inexcusable chaos. Many of those affected point to the apparently high staff turnover at the CMS, which results in cases being frequently shuffled around between officials. In just one alarming echo of the Post Office scandal, suspected computer glitches have also been blamed as a major contributing factor. Regardless of the root cause, it beggars belief that little appears to have been done to address the crisis - especially given that one father received six letters in a single day all claiming he owed different amounts. It hardly needs saying that the impact of being constantly bombarded with incorrect payment demands goes beyond frustration or annoyance for some individuals. Our inquiries turned up incidences of crippling debt, depression, breakdowns, lost careers, abandoned homes and suicide. Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, whose brief covers the CMS, must launch an immediate review before any other poor unfortunate is hounded to the grave The case of 41-year-old Jonathan O’Neill, who fought a four-year battle over an inaccurate bill and posted on Facebook shortly before he died that the CMS was ‘about to take yet another life’, is particularly tragic. It is, of course, outrageous for any state organisation - let alone one that has the power to plunder people’s wage packets and freeze their bank accounts – to operate in such an inefficient and cavalier fashion. Nor can it be allowed to continue for any longer. Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, whose brief covers the agency, must launch an immediate review before any other poor unfortunate is hounded to the grave. And before any further emotional turmoil is inflicted on the very same children the CMS is supposed to be protecting. WITH his whistlestop tour of Britain and a growing list of giveaways to announce, Andy Burnham has certainly had a busy week. Whether it was in the least bit productive is highly debatable. The Prime Minister may have given strict instructions to his Cabinet to be open about the funding of projects, but he seems reluctant to lead by example. His publicity stunts promising cheap bus fares and reduced electricity bills mean precious little if he refuses to reveal where the money is coming from. Nor has Mr Burnham had anything to say in public about two issues that voters would actually like to hear him addressing – the never-ending Channel boats crisis and the increasingly terrifying threat from rogue AI models. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at his silence on these subjects, given that he might have actually had to say something of substance. Trying to hoodwink the public with smoke-and-mirrors gimmickry is presumably a far easier option in the short term.