Parents pushed to breaking point by Child Maintenance Service, BBC told

Parents have told BBC Panorama that the agency tasked with helping to secure financial support for children after separation or divorce is driving them to breaking point.

Mothers described battling with the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to get their ex-partners to pay up, while fathers said they have been caused anxiety and stress by administrative mistakes.

One mother said she turned to food banks after the CMS failed to make her ex-partner pay child maintenance, leaving arrears of almost £10,000. Another said she had been forced to skip meals after her abusive ex-partner stopped paying.

We have also spoken to a father who said years of disagreements with the CMS have pushed him to the brink, including after it added an extra child to his account who was not his.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which runs the CMS, said "in the vast majority of cases" it successfully arranges "vital payments for children". It said it takes "very seriously the small number of cases where things go wrong".

BBC Panorama meets parents who receive maintenance and those who pay it, and asks whether the system is failing both them and their children.

About four million children in England, Scotland and Wales have parents who are separated.

Parents must have a child maintenance arrangement if the child is under 16, or under 20 if they are in approved education or training. Both parents are responsible for the costs of raising their children, even if they do not see them.

If there is a dispute over how these payments are provided, parents can turn to the CMS to help ensure a child's living costs, including bills, food and clothing, are paid. It uses a formula to work out how much a parent should pay, depending on a range of factors including their income.

When Katy and her partner broke up more than three years ago, they could not agree on child maintenance payments for their two children. Like hundreds of thousands of others, she turned to the CMS for help. But she has told Panorama the service does not work.

Her ex-partner is meant to pay more than £330 a month, but she said he is not paying, and had built up arrears of almost £10,000.

Katy said the lack of financial support meant she had been forced to make tough choices.

"I did go to food banks… there's been occasions where I've wanted the kids to be able to do more, more clubs, do stuff with their friends. I've had to say no, I feel terrible."

The CMS is overseeing more than 800,000 cases in England, Scotland and Wales, involving more than a million children. Northern Ireland has a separate service.