Initially, as part of the strategy to push the child maintenance reforms through Parliament, Iain Duncan Smith and Maria Miller implied that £30 million would be directed towards support to help separated parents make “family based arrangements” for child maintenance instead of using the statutory service.

Most of the organisations awarded a share of the £30 million, allocated under the Department for Education’s Voluntary and Community Sector grant, turn out to be connected to Samantha Callan, of Iain Duncan Smith’s think tank, the Centre for Social Justice, and the architect of the child maintenance reforms.