Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Child Maintenance Service cases in each of the last five years have had a safeguarding flag applied due to domestic abuse concerns; and how many of those cases involved Collect and Pay arrangements.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The Child Maintenance Serviced (CMS) takes the issue of domestic abuse very seriously and is committed to ensuring victims and survivors of abuse get the help and support they need to use the CMS safely.
CMS caseworkers are provided with domestic abuse training to ensure they understand, recognise and respond safely and appropriately to customers who are experiencing domestic abuse, or are survivors of domestic abuse. A programme of refresher training has been underway for all existing CMS colleagues during 2025.
There is a specialist team in place in CMS who deliver targeted support to parents subject to the most challenging and complex domestic abuse.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether as part of the Timms review ministers will consult Social Security Scotland and look at how assessments and reassessments are carried out.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We engage closely with officials and disability stakeholders from across the devolved governments, including the Scottish Government, to ensure the Timms Review is informed by diverse approaches to disability support from across the United Kingdom.
The Review’s Terms of Reference, which set out its scope, include an explicit reference to re-assessments to recognise that PIP must be fair and fit for new and existing claimants. You can view the Terms of Reference on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the annual collection rate is for child maintenance under (a) Collect and Pay and (b) Direct Pay.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department regularly publishes Child Maintenance Service official statistics, with the latest statistics available to September 2025. Table 4 and Table 5 of the accompanying National tables provide information on the amount of child maintenance that should have been paid through Direct Pay and Collect and Pay arrangements, as well as the amounts that remain unpaid under each method.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of departmental staff in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP’s performance management policy utilises a team-based approach. The policy requires the performance of every employee to be robustly assessed on an ongoing basis. However, the approach does not involve employees below the Senior Civil Service being assigned a performance rating. Consequently, we are unable to provide data on employees rated in a top performance category.
For Senior Civil Servants (SCS) there are four performance ratings available within the Performance management framework for the Senior Civil Service: Exceeding, High Performing, Achieving and Partially Met. In 2024-25, the DWP Pay Committee agreed to use three of the four performance ratings available for SCS1 and SCS2s, and the ‘top’ performers were recorded as high performing. Exceeding was used for SCS3s / Director Generals (DGs), following instruction from the Senior Leadership Committee for Director General performance management which set specific criteria for the assessment of DGs to improve consistency between departments. The number and proportion of SCS in each grade rated in the top performance categories for 2024-25 was as follows:
Rating | SCS1 | SCS2 | SCS3 | |||
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % |
Exceeding | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | <30 | --% |
High Performing | 67 | 28% | <30 | --% | <30 | --% |
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with multiple sclerosis on contributory Employment and Support Allowance are in the (i) Support Group and (ii) Work-Related Activity Group.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The following table shows the volume of people with multiple sclerosis as their primary condition who were claiming contributory Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) by Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) and Support Group (SG) in May 2025.
| Volume |
WRAG | .. |
SG | 13,700 |
Notes:
- Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
- The data supplied is based on bespoke analysis of departmental datasets and has not been certified as National Statistics or Official Statistics.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Child Maintenance Service delays and errors on child poverty levels and low-income households.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We know that children in separated families are poorer and more likely to live in poverty than those in non-separated families. Child maintenance payments through both statutory and non-statutory arrangements keep approximately 120,000 children out of poverty each year.
The Department legally relies on data from HM Revenue & Customs and its own benefits data to assess 90% of paying parents earned income and benefit status, which are key parts of the maintenance calculation and maintains a stable accuracy rate of 99.5%
CMS undertake regular quality assurance checks and continually monitors processes to identify improvements.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children are included in Child Maintenance Service cases in which the paying parent has been subject to three or more separate enforcement actions for non payment.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested on the number of children in Child Maintenance Service cases which have been subject to three or more separate enforcement actions is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Child Maintenance Service safeguarding procedures for parents who have experienced domestic abuse; and whether changes have been made to those procedures recently.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) takes the issue of domestic abuse very seriously and is committed to ensuring victims and survivors of abuse get the help and support they need to use the CMS safely.
The CMS has substantially strengthened its procedures and processes to support customers who are experiencing domestic abuse. They will not be complacent and will always look at ways to go even further.
The CMS has refreshed its approach and understanding of domestic abuse to include financial and coercive control and better awareness of how abuse affects all genders.
A programme of refresher training has been underway for all existing CMS colleagues during 2025.
The CMS has access to resources which help caseworkers provide signposting to supporting organisations, and a Domestic Abuse Plan which includes clear steps to follow in order to support customers who are experiencing abuse. The list of resources and Domestic Abuse Plan are regularly reviewed.
As well as the Domestic Abuse Plan, the CMS responds to cases involving domestic abuse in several ways, including by acting as an intermediary in Direct Pay cases, and providing advice on how to set up bank accounts with a centralised sort code to limit the risk of a parent’s location being traced.
There is a specialist team in CMS who deliver targeted support to parents subject to the most challenging and complex domestic abuse.
We have implemented a more efficient process to move a case to collect and pay when the receiving parent reports missed payments.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the overall cost of removing the two-child benefit cap, and (2) what percentage of that cost will be spent on foreign-born children.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/OBR_Economic_and_fiscal_outlook_November_2025.pdf
Table 3.2: Costing of the removal of the two-child limit
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| £ billion (unless otherwise stated) | ||||
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| Forecast | ||||
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| 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 | 2029-30 | 2030-31 |
Post-behavioural costing |
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| 2.3 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 3.1 | ||
of which: |
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Static costing |
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| 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 2.7 | 2.8 | |
Direct behavioural response from higher take-up | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | ||||
Number of families gaining (thousand) |
| 510 | 520 | 540 | 560 | 570 | |||
Average annual change in award for gaining |
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families (£) |
|
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| 4,530 | 4,790 | 5,040 | 5,310 | 5,450 | |
We have announced plans to double the standard time most migrants have to wait before they can access benefits to 10 years, reducing the burden on the taxpayer and making sure settlement rights are earned.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many fraud and error reviews under the Housing Benefit Award Accuracy Initiative were carried out during 2024-25 for supported exempt accommodation housing benefit claims in Birmingham; and what proportion of all claims in Birmingham were these reviews.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
14,000 supported exempt Housing Benefit claims in Birmingham were subject to an Housing Benefit Award Accuracy 'full case review' in 2024/25. This represents 15% of all Housing Benefit claims in Birmingham over the period.