Make parents who receive regular CSA (Child Maintenance) payments have to prove where this money is being spent. Make it a mandatory requirement that all funds received are spent on the children and the children alone. No personal expenses for that parent are to be taken from those funds by any means. They would have to send receipts that total the full amount received or fill in expense forms either written or online and send them off monthly or whenever they receive their payments. If they don’t usually spend the full amount each month or put it by into a savings account under that child’s name, they should also be required to prove it. If the parent is found out to be fraudulently spending money meant for the children, then they should face a fine of at least £1000, penalty action or get convicted for the crime and face potential jail time or commit to unpaid hours of community service. The whole DWP Child Maintenance system needs to be drastically changed for the better of the children. It’s been broken for years. 

If a parent is found of any wrongdoing or found to be too untrustworthy, the other parent who pays into the system could instead, still pay it but into some form of an online savings account through the DWP portal. And that money is then saved for the child and funded to them at a later date (when they turn 16-18 potentially) or the money is simply paid in online and transferred into vouchers for food, medicine/private healthcare appointments, school dinners/uniform/trips and any other expenses for that child’s needs.