Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Child Maintenance Service

Monday 5 February 2024 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 3 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Child maintenance payments collected by the Child Maintenance Service increased from 64% to 69% over the year ending September 2022.
  • Parents can request the CMS to vary the standard maintenance calculation if certain types of taxable income are not captured.
  • The Government has consulted on using curfew orders to improve enforcement of child maintenance but has not yet responded to the July 2022 consultation.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Helen Morgan Lib Dem North Shropshire
Children & Families
Context

The effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service in collecting child maintenance payments is being questioned due to low payment rates and administrative issues.

Question

What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service in collecting child maintenance payments? Parents who paid some maintenance on the collect and pay service increased from 64% to 69% over the 12 months from September 2022, but my constituent's daughter missed out for more than a year due to her father changing jobs.

Answer from Paul Maynard

Where parents have certain categories of taxable income not being captured by the standard child maintenance calculation, they can make a request to the CMS to have the calculation varied. We have consulted on proposals to include more types of taxable income held by HMRC in the standard maintenance calculation.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The question specifically asked about chasing up employers but the answer discussed varying calculations and including more types of income.

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Q2 Helen Morgan Lib Dem North Shropshire
Benefits & Welfare
Context

The effectiveness and enforcement actions of the Child Maintenance Service are under scrutiny due to missed payments affecting children in separated families.

Question

My constituent's daughter is a young lady who has missed out for more than a year on child maintenance payments because her father changed jobs, causing CMS to lose track. Despite involvement from my team and faffing around, she still hasn't received payment. Will the Minister explain what his Department is doing to ensure employers of missing parents are properly chased up?

Answer from Paul Maynard

Where parents have certain categories of taxable income not being captured by the standard child maintenance calculation, they can make a request to the CMS to have the calculation varied. We have consulted on proposals to include more types of taxable income held by HMRC in the standard maintenance calculation.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The question specifically asked about chasing up employers but the answer discussed varying calculations and including more types of income.

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Q3 Therese Coffey Con
Children & Families
Context

The effectiveness of current enforcement measures for child maintenance payments and the status of curfew orders consultation are being questioned.

Question

The Department has several ways to try to get paying parents to cough up, but we still have not had a response to the July 2022 Government consultation on child maintenance and improving our enforcement powers through curfew orders. When does the Government plan to respond? Other powers include depriving people of driving or passport abilities.

Answer from Paul Maynard

My right hon. Friend is quite right that the Government have consulted on the use of curfews, which are complex and interact with numerous Government services. Several enforcement initiatives aimed at improving compliance are currently in train, and we need to get those in place and assess their effects before we can best see how curfews might fit with them.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The question specifically asked about the timeline for responding to the consultation on curfew orders but the answer discussed complexity and current enforcement initiatives.

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