Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many households with children have an income of £35,000 or more and receive Universal Credit.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In November 2024, 220,000 out of 2.9m Universal Credit households with children that were paid an amount of Universal Credit had earnings that, according to publicly available tax and salary calculations, were equivalent to an annual salary of £35,000 a year or more.
Universal Credit is a means-tested in- and out-of-work benefit which reduces as household earnings increase. The level at which entitlement to Universal Credit ends will be different for different claimants/households depending on their circumstances and other unearned income.
Households with a higher entitlement to Universal Credit due to, for example, high housing costs and childcare costs, can earn more before their UC is tapered away compared to those with a lower entitlement.
It is right that the amount of Universal Credit a household is entitled to increases with the needs of a household and that it reduces as a household earns more.
Notes:
This analysis uses internal management information therefore UC households with children figures do not precisely match published statistics.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 4 June (HL7640), what additional steps they are taking to safeguard victim-survivors of domestic abuse on 'direct pay' ahead of their response to their consultation on "Child Maintenance: Improving the collection and transfer of payments".
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The 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.
The CMS has access to a list of resources which helps 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 is 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.
The CMS has a specialist team in place who deliver targeted support to parents subject to the most challenging and complex domestic abuse.
The CMS have also substantially reduced the time it takes to move a case from Direct Pay to Collect and Pay when a receiving parent reports missed payments
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the official statistics Child Maintenance Service statistics: data to December 2024, published 25 March, how many of the 68,000 paying parents who paid no maintenance via the Collect and Pay service in the last quarter of 2024 are undergoing an enforcement process; and how many of those have (1) agreed a repayment plan, (2) had deductions from earning applied, (3) had deductions from benefits applied, (4) had a request for deductions from earnings applied, (5) had a deduction order from a bank account or saving account applied, (6) had assets seized, (7) had passports seized, (8) had driving licences seized, (9) had criminal charged laid, and (10) had other enforcement action taken.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a wide range of enforcement powers and is committed to using these fairly and in the best interests of children and separated families to tackle non-paying Collect and Pay cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours. CMS will always attempt to secure alternative methods of payments to gain improved compliance in cases where this fails.
The CMS Collect and Pay service with ‘nil compliance’, i.e. those who paid no maintenance, in the quarter ending December 2024, is published on Stat-Xplore and shown in the table below.
Method of payment for Paying Parents using the CMS Collect and Pay service with ‘nil compliance’, October to December 2024
Method of Payment | No of Paying Parents with nil compliance |
No Collect & Pay Liability | .. |
Bank Head Office Collection Account | .. |
Direct Debit | 751 |
Deduction from Earnings Order | 8,410 |
Deduction from Earnings Request | 58 |
Deduction from Benefits | 24,471 |
Standing Order (Default) | 30,834 |
Payment Offset | 9 |
Unspecified | 92 |
Standing Order (Voluntary) | 3,051 |
Not available | .. |
Total | 67,673 |
Source: Stat-Xplore
Quarterly enforcement statistics are regularly published in the CMS National Tables, however it is not possible to link these statistics to the published compliance statistics within the disproportionate cost limit.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the number and total value of enforcement fees that have been (1) charged to, and (2) received from, paying parents in respect of child maintenance in the financial years 2023–24 and 2024–25, under (a) liability orders, (b) lump sum deduction order, (c) regular deduction orders, (d) deduction from earnings requests, and (e) deduction from earnings order.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Financial Year | Volume Raised | Value Raised (£) |
2023/24 | 88,030 | £7,946,537 |
2024/25* | 105,495 | £8,335,937 |
Breakdown of volume and value charged to paying parents by Enforcement method
Enforcement Method (Charged) | 2023/24 Volume | 2023/24 (£) | 2024/25 Volume | 2024/25 (£) |
Liability Orders | 17,466 | £4,319,632 | 16,300 | £3,865,740 |
Lump Sum Deduction Order | 2,579 | £458,503 | 2,706 | £460,985 |
Regular Deduction Orders | 7,964 | £376,604 | 8,300 | £384,067 |
Deduction from Earnings Request / Order | 60,021 | £2,791,798 | 78,189 | £3,625,145 |
Total | 88,030 | £7,946,537 | 105,495 | £8,335,937 |
Note: Deduction from Earnings Orders (DEO) and Deduction from Earnings Requests (DER) are grouped together in reporting.
2.Total volume and value of Enforcement Fees received from paying parents.
Financial Year | Volume Received | Value Received (£) |
2023/24 | 49,763 | £2,086,180 |
2024/25* | 66,694 | £2,504,856 |
Breakdown of volume and value received from paying parents by Enforcement method.
Enforcement Method (Received) | 2023/24 Volume | 2023/24 (£) | 2024/25 Volume | 2024/25 (£) |
Liability Orders | 8,973 | £607,974 | 12,234 | £729,750 |
Lump Sum Deduction Order | 3,431 | £325,787 | 3,629 | £352,870 |
Regular Deduction Orders | 3,754 | £115,725 | 4,635 | £121,201 |
Deduction from Earnings Request / Order | 33,605 | £1,035,571 | 46,196 | £1,301,035 |
Total | 49,763 | £2,086,180 | 66,694 | £2,504,856 |
Note: Deduction from Earnings Orders (DEO) and Deduction from Earnings Requests (DER) are grouped together in reporting.
*Please note that 2024/25 figures are unaudited and subject to change
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government why they have not yet fully commenced the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Act 2023.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Act 2023 recognised that Direct Pay may not always be appropriate for victims and survivors of domestic abuse. The Act intended to provide them greater protection when using the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) by allowing them to access Collect & Pay where there is evidence of domestic abuse.
However, it can be difficult to evidence and verify who is a victim of domestic abuse, which is a necessary stage within this process as any decision will impact both parents. Many victims and survivors of domestic abuse will not be able to provide evidence, and for the cases where evidence is available, it could be traumatic for victims and survivors to discuss. Where evidence could be provided, the CMS would need to verify this with the appropriate bodies which could lead to delays for these customers.
As a result, the CMS have looked to resolve the issue by reforming our services to make them safer for domestic abuse victims without needing to identify who those victims are.
The Government recently completed a consultation proposing the removal of Direct Pay and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster and better support victims and survivors of domestic abuse who use the CMS. The response will be published in in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much Child Maintenance Service payment was reduced to receiving parents because of “special expenses” relating to travel to visit family in (1) 2020–21, (2) 2021–22, (3) 2022–23, and (4) 2023–24.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Special expense variations allow the Child Maintenance Service to look at some circumstances which are not covered by the basic maintenance calculation. A parent may apply for a variation at any time during the life of their case. If we accept a variation and it subsequently succeeds, we adjust the maintenance calculation accordingly.
Special expense variations are:
The Child Maintenance Service holds collective data for all special expense variation categories but we do not hold specific data for each individual category. As data is not readily available, to provide this would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people and how many full-time equivalent posts work in the Child Maintenance Service (1) as civil servants, and (2) as contractors.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 30th March 2025, the number of employees working for the Child Maintenance Service is 5,055. This equates to the full-time equivalent (FTE) of 4449.65
The breakdown for (1) civil servants, and (2) contractors are as follow:
| Number of Employees | FTE |
DWP Civil Servants (GB) | 4,078 | 3502.73 |
DfCNI Civil Servants (NI) | 651 | 620.92 |
Contractors (Recruitment Agency NI) | 326 | 326 |
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many, and what proportion of, parents in arrears on Child Maintenance Service payments are unemployed.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to ensuring separated parents support their children financially, taking robust enforcement action against those who do not. Where parents fail to pay their child maintenance, the Service will not hesitate to use its enforcement powers, including deductions from earnings orders, removal of driving licences, disqualification from holding a passport, and committal to prison.
If a paying parent is in receipts of benefits due to being unemployed, the CMS can set up a deduction from the benefit to collect ongoing maintenance, or arrears in the case of Collect and Pay. The CMS can deduct £8.40 a week towards ongoing maintenance or arrears from certain prescribed benefits. Deductions towards arrears and ongoing maintenance are not taken at the same time. Arrears deductions are taken only after ongoing liability has been satisfied.
The Information on the full arrears status of those parents is not readily available and to providei t would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many complaints the Independent Case Examiner has received in the last three years (1) in total and (2) regarding child maintenance; and of those, how many were found in favour of the complainant.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
ICE does not accept every case that it receives, for example, ICE cannot accept a case until it has exhausted DWP’s complaints process (premature referrals), nor can it accept those outside its jurisdiction.
ICE only considers complaints about maladministration or service failures and cannot deal with complaints about matters of law, that are, or have been, subject to legal proceedings, about how any of the businesses fulfil their responsibilities as an employer or any that involve the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman or the Northern Ireland Ombudsman.
Once a case has been accepted, if appropriate, ICE will attempt to broker a resolution with the customer before gathering all of the evidence relating to the case. Where resolution cannot be reached, evidence is collated, and an investigation is conducted. On the basis of findings made, the case may be upheld/partially upheld in favour of the customer or not upheld. The number of cases received, accepted, and upheld/partially upheld, is in the table below.
| 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
Total* Received | 4911 | 5824 | 7149 |
CMS Received | 1309 | 1519 | 1827 |
Total* Accepted | 1711 | 1861 | 2214 |
CMS Accepted | 785 | 731 | 981 |
Total* upheld/partially upheld | 584 | 765 | 893 |
CMS upheld/partially upheld | 311 | 474 | 459 |
*ICE reviews complaints made by customers of the Department for Work and Pensions (which includes the Child Maintenance Service), Northern Ireland Department for Communities – benefits, pensions and child maintenance only, contracted DWP services and Pension Protection Fund.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to commence sections 2, 3 and 4(1) to (4) of the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 proposed regulations to support the introduction of administrative liability orders (ALOs), removing the requirement to obtain a court issued liability order. Introducing this process should enable the Child Maintenance Service to take faster action against those paying parents who actively avoid their responsibilities and get money to children more quickly. We are working with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service and the Scottish Government to establish a process for implementing ALOs and plan to introduce regulations to Parliament by the end of this year.