Guest blog: Navigating the snakes and broken ladders in child maintenance

"Child maintenance is about making sure children have what they need to grow, learn and feel secure. Every child deserves support from both parents, whether they live under the same roof or not."

–Member of the Transforming Child Maintenance Single Parent Expert Group

Over the past three years, One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS) has led the Transforming Child Maintenance partnership with Fife Gingerbread, IPPR Scotland and, crucially, parents with lived experience.

Funded by The Robertson Trust, we worked to improve the child maintenance system so more children in single parent families receive the financial support they're entitled to.

The project, which concluded in May 2026, was grounded in lived experience. Through a series of workshops, parents shared what it was like to navigate child maintenance system and co-produced our recommendations for reform.

Together, we translated those experiences into a giant game of Child Maintenance Snakes and Ladders, which we took to a roundtable event in Westminster with MPs in March this year. In addition to the straightforward ladders that reward progress, parents added ladders with broken rungs to show how, just when they thought they were moving forward, they could find themselves back where they started, facing delays, repeating processes or having to recount traumatic experiences to different Child Maintenance Service case handlers.

Sadly, those experiences reflect a wider challenge: more than £770 million in child maintenance remains unpaid. Many parents find the system so difficult to navigate that they simply give up.

IPPR Scotland estimates that 20,000 Scottish children could be lifted out of poverty if families received the child maintenance they're entitled to. The Poverty Alliance's evaluation of Fife Gingerbread's Test and Learn pilot showed that specialist support helps parents secure or increase child maintenance while improving family incomes.

Child maintenance is reserved to the UK Government, but tackling child poverty is not. Our final report called for UK reform while highlighting practical action Scotland could take to embed child maintenance within financial inclusion services. Building on the evidence, the Scottish Government has invested in OPFS, in partnership with Fife Gingerbread, to scale up specialist child maintenance information, advice and support across Scotland.

Parents also co-produced Child Maintenance Explained with OPFS, Fife Gingerbread, Citizens Advice Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid and the DWP, a new website designed to help families better navigate the child maintenance system.

For many parents, navigating the child maintenance system can still feel like a game of snakes and broken ladders. At OPFS, we'll continue to push for the systemic reform needed to change that. In the meantime, child maintenance is now firmly recognised as part of the child poverty conversation in both the UK and Scotland. Through Child Maintenance Explained and expanded information, advice and support, we're equipping parents to overcome barriers and secure the financial support their children are entitled to.

• Visit Child Maintenance Explained for accessible information written for parents navigating the child maintenance system.
• Parents, and professionals supporting families who need support with child maintenance, can contact the Lone Parent Helpline or use the Live Chat service for free, independent information and advice.

Philippa Kemp is the Communications and Participation Manager at One Parent Families Scotland. She was a key member of the Transforming Child Maintenance project team, leading on communications, overseeing parent participation, contributing to policy and influencing work and project managing the partnership.

NOTES:

• The Scottish Government is funding the expansion of child maintenance information, advice and support across Scotland, led by OPFS in partnership with Fife Gingerbread. This forms part of the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026–31 and reflects the growing evidence that supporting parents to access child maintenance can help reduce child poverty in single parent families.
• Child maintenance is also recognised for the first time in the UK Government's Child Poverty Strategy. In June this year, OPFS gave evidence to the Westminster inquiry on the UK Child Poverty Strategy, where we highlighted the importance of reforming the Child Maintenance Service as part of wider efforts to tackle child poverty.