The Kellett and Briggs Bill Campaign
Right First Time UK
Fair Decisions. Public Money. Real Accountability.
The Kellett and Briggs Bill DRAFT
Purpose:
To reform the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), Child Benefit rules, family court transparency, and public-sector accountability where poor decisions create false debt, financial hardship, family breakdown, and avoidable harm to children and parents.
This Bill seeks to ensure that public services protect families rather than punish them.
PART 1 — Shared Care and Child Benefit Reform
Clause 1 — Shared Child Benefit Entitlement
Where parents have genuine shared care, including 50/50 care arrangements, Child Benefit must be capable of being:
shared proportionally
or
alternated fairly between both parents
The automatic presumption that only one parent is financially recognised must end.
Children living across two homes must be recognised across two homes.
Clause 2 — Neutral Starting Position After Separation
Following parental separation, where both parents provide safe care, all public systems must begin from a neutral shared-care position.
No automatic presumption of a “primary carer” should exist without evidence.
This includes:
CMS
Child Benefit
housing support
benefit calculations
school and local authority recognition
PART 2 — CMS False Debt Protection
Clause 3 — No Debt Without Proof
No CMS arrears, enforcement action, or liability order may proceed unless CMS has provided:
full written calculation
All Sources of information given, but not limited to; ( A non resident parent / paying parents income, shared care, payments made)
legal basis for the debt
payment history review
annual review compliance
proof of notification
case closure checks
shared care review
hardship and vulnerability assessment
False debt must not be enforceable.
Clause 4 —Fully Independent Review Before Enforcement
Before:
Deduction from Earnings Orders
bank deductions
liability orders
bailiff action
passport restrictions
driving licence suspension
there must be access to:
independent review
outside CMS internal decision-making.
Enforcement must never begin before review rights are exhausted.
Clause 5 — False Arrears Compensation Duty
Where CMS creates false arrears through administrative error, failure to close cases, system failures, or unlawful enforcement:
CMS must provide:
automatic correction
compensation review
financial loss reimbursement
formal written explanation
The burden must not remain on the parent to fix government error.
PART 3 — Family Court Transparency
Clause 6 — Quarterly Publication of Family Court Decisions
Family court decisions involving:
child arrangements
shared care
parental responsibility
repeated CMS-linked disputes
must be published quarterly in anonymised form.
Publication must include:
judicial reasoning
outcome
legal basis
judge’s name (unless specific safety exception applies)
Publication must exclude:
parent names
child names
addresses
identifying personal details
Justice must be transparent.
Clause 7 — Shared Care Wording Standards
Family court orders involving shared care must use clear standard wording to avoid CMS misinterpretation.
Orders must clearly state:
percentage of care
overnight arrangements
school holiday arrangements
whether no primary carer exists
Ambiguity must not create false debt.
PART 4 — Public Contractor Accountability
Clause 8 — Contractor KPI and Fair Pay Duty
Where public contractors fail:
service standards
contractual KPIs
lawful wage obligations
safe staffing requirements
public authorities must:
review contracts
use clawback powers
publish failures
investigate underpayment
refer serious labour exploitation where required
Public money must not fund exploitation.
PART 5 — Public Complaint Reform
Clause 9 — Right First Time Duty
All public bodies must operate under a legal:
Right First Time Duty
requiring lawful, evidence-based, fair decision-making before:
complaints
appeals
tribunals
ombudsman investigations
legal enforcement
Avoidable rework is public waste.
Clause 10 — Annual Public Failure Reporting
Government departments must publish annual data on:
complaints upheld
tribunal losses
false debt corrections
compensation paid
repeated service failures
enforcement errors
The public must be able to see the real cost of getting it wrong.
PART 6 — Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
Clause 11 — Vulnerability and Safeguarding Duty
Before enforcement action involving debt, public bodies must complete:
vulnerability checks
mental health risk review
domestic abuse review
safeguarding checks involving children
Financial enforcement must never ignore suicide risk or family harm.
Why This Bill Matters
Too many families are facing:
false arrears
forced deductions
court battles
emotional collapse
financial hardship
family breakdown
preventable deaths
Public systems must not create harm and then hide behind process.
In Memory Of
Robert Andrew Kellett
(11 March 1966 – 16 April 2026)
and
Gavin Briggs
(8 May 1980 – 1 July 2020)
whose experiences helped expose the human cost of systems getting it wrong.
Their fight continues through this Bill.
Our Closing Statement
No debt without proof.
No enforcement without fairness.
No silence without accountability.
Public services should protect families — not destroy them.
THIS IS A DRAFT AND CAN BE AMENDED
KEEP THE CONVERSATIONS GOING