Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
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 backlogs in court cases on the ability of the Child Maintenance Service to ensure parents receive child maintenance payments on time.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) takes the impact of backlogs very seriously and regularly makes assessments in order to ensure payments are received on time. The Department and HM Courts and Tribunals Service maintain a vitally close working relationship with an aim to ensure Courts have sufficient capacity for referrals made from the CMS and prevent backlogs.
For context, the CMS has a wide range of strong enforcement powers designed to get money flowing quickly, prevent the build-up of arrears and get children the financial support they deserve. Where parents consistently fail to pay their maintenance, the CMS may pursue unpaid maintenance through liability orders and sanctions granted by the courts. These include using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, disqualification from driving or commitment to prison.
We are committed to making the most effective use of these strong enforcement powers and have made several improvements to our enforcement processes to make it quicker and more efficient.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of having officials from her Department work at the St Neots Citizen Hub (a) on a permanent basis and (b) one day a week, in the context of helping to improve her Department's services in the local area.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our Service Leader for East Anglia is very happy to explore the potential to deliver job club/job search sessions at St Neots Citizen Hub. Our Partnership Manager for Cambridge, Huntingdon, Ely and Haverhill has already established a relationship with the Citizens Hub in St Neots having attended an event on 21st November. There is an additional meeting planned in December to investigate how the Jobcentre and Citizens Hub can work closely together, including having Jobcentre colleagues within the Hub.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of making the Child Maintenance Service more accessible to parents.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The aim of the Child Maintenance Service is to create a modern accessible service through our digital transformation and Service Modernisation programmes, to allow our customers to have greater choice of how and when they contact us.
Through our digital transformation programme, almost all applications are now made online, and we have more than doubled My Child Maintenance Case (MCMC) registrations. 1.46 million customers now have access to our service 24/7 through their online accounts, with over 1.12 million logins in September 2024.
Every change and improvement made to our processes, systems, and service are all part of modernising our service. This will be an ongoing process of continuous improvement to make Child Maintenance Service more accessible to all parents.
As part of the Government’s reforms to the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Act receiving Royal Assent on 29 June 2023, the Child Maintenance Service removed the £20 application to ensure families on the lowest incomes do not face a barrier to accessing the service. The Government consultation on remaining reforms has concluded. We are in the process of finalising the details of the consultation and aim to publish it as soon as possible on gov.uk.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of the performance of the Child Maintenance Service since the reforms announced in February 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
On the 26 February 2024, regulations came into place to remove the £20 Child Maintenance Service application fee as part of the Government’s response to help with the cost-of-living increase.
This has resulted in an increase in applications in the quarter to March and June 2024. In the quarter ending June 2024 there were 39,000 new applications, an increase of 6,400 applications compared with the quarter to June 2023.
The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service. Please refer to table 1 and 2 of the national tables for data on applications and intake national-tables-child-maintenance-service-to-june-2024.ods
Additionally, the DWP was given the legal power to write off low level debt under £7.00 (£6.99 and less), where a Direct Pay and Collect and Pay case has closed, there is no ongoing liability, and no payment has been received in the previous 90 days.
Since the reform was introduced, the DWP has written off low level debt which was not cost effective for the service to chase. Therefore, this has protected the cost to the public.
The DWP is still committed to gathering debt and has recently consulted on new measures to improve enforcement. The results of this consultation will be published in due course.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data her Department holds on the number of parents who did not receive their child maintenance payments on time in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service does not hold data on the timeliness of payments; however, we do hold data on the number of Child Maintenance arrangements on the statutory scheme and the collection of maintenance.
The Department publishes the quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service. Please refer to tables 4 and 5 of the National Tables for data on child maintenance arrangements and collection: national-tables-child-maintenance-service-to-june-2024.ods
The Department is dedicated to ensuring parents meet their financial obligations to children and the Child Maintenance Service will do everything within its powers to make sure parents comply.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to increase the percentage of applications cleared by the Child Maintenance Service within six weeks.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the year to June 2024 there were 138,000 new applications to the Child Maintenance Service, an increase of 10% since June 2023.
The Department’s most recently published statistics show that 76% of applications received were cleared within 6 weeks (up to the quarter ending March 2024).
The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service. Please see tables 1 and 2 of the national tables for more information on applications.
Additional resources have been deployed to process new applications in order to meet increased customer demand. Service Modernisation improvements have been made to processes and systems to increase automation and allow both receiving and paying parents to manage their application online. This allows us to serve them faster as well as freeing up resources to help customers who need greater support.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that all parents receive the correct amount of child maintenance payment on time.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
A principle of child maintenance is to increase levels of cooperation between separated parents and encourage parents to meet their responsibilities to provide their children with financial support.
Where a family-based child maintenance arrangement is not suitable the Child Maintenance Service offers a statutory scheme, Direct Pay and Collect and Pay, for those parents who need it.
To ensure Child Maintenance calculations are accurate the department uses proportionate and cost-effective controls, such as:
The Government is dedicated to ensuring parents meet their financial obligations to children and the Child Maintenance Service will do everything within its powers to make sure parents comply. 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. The Service is committed to using these powers fairly and in the best interests of children and separated families.
The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service. Please refer to tables 4, 5, 6.1 and 6.2 of the National Tables for data on child maintenance arrangements and collection. national-tables-child-maintenance-service-to-june-2024.ods
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of opening a jobcentre in St Neots.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions continually keeps under review the location of Jobcentres across Great Britain to balance customer demand and the range of services required, while also providing value for money for the taxpayer. There are no plans to expand the Jobcentre Plus network at this time.
When shaping Jobcentre services, DWP uses local insights to develop plans which account for the needs of communities to access employment support. Support for St Neots is currently available from Huntingdon and Cambridge Jobcentres, both of which are located nearby.