Oral Answers to Questions

Paul Maynard Excerpts

Monday 5th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

3. What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service in collecting child maintenance payments.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Paul Maynard)]

The Government are dedicated to ensuring that parents meet their obligations to children, and we take robust enforcement action against those who do not. Parents who paid some maintenance on the collect and pay service increased from 64% to 69% over the 12 months from September 2022.

[Helen Morgan]

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 and the Child Maintenance Service lost track of him. My team have been involved, and despite lots of faffing, she still has not received a payment. She is one of around half of children in separated families who are not receiving the maintenance payments they deserve. Will the Minister explain what his Department is doing to ensure that the employers of these missing parents are properly chased up?

[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 His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in the standard maintenance calculation.

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

The Department has a number of ways to try to get paying parents to cough up, and we must remember that this is cash for the children. In July 2022, the Government consulted on child maintenance and improving our enforcement powers through the commencement of curfew orders, and we still have not had a response to that consultation. I would be grateful to hear from the Government when they plan to respond, and I remind them of the other powers in place, such as depriving people of the ability to drive or of their passport. This is a simple thing, where people have the money and will not cough up the cash. I think we need to get on with curfew orders.

[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. I note her enthusiasm for curfews and might well put her in touch with Viscount Younger of Leckie, the Minister in the Lords, whose policy brief this is, so that he can update her on our latest thinking.

[Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)]

4. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of benefits.

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[Mr Rob Roberts (Delyn) (Ind)]

14. What recent assessment he has made of the potential cost of restoring parity in the level of state pension received by UK citizens living overseas.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Paul Maynard)]

According to the latest estimate, based on data from March 2022, uprating the state pension where we do not currently do so would cost about £0.9 billion a year if all UK state pensions in payment were increased to current UK levels.

[Mr Roberts]

Following our withdrawal from the EU, we are rightly able to move closer to our partners in the Commonwealth. One way in which we could do that would be to confirm that all British citizens who live in the Commonwealth should be entitled to the appropriate uprating of their state pensions as if they were still in the UK. That would seem to be a matter of simple fairness. Will the Minister meet me to discuss the practicalities of making it happen, and restoring some much-needed common sense to a needlessly complicated situation?

[Paul Maynard]

The UK Government continue to uprate state pensions when there is a legal requirement for that to be done, and have no plans to change their long-standing policy or enter into new reciprocal social security agreements.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

15. If he will take steps to simplify the benefits claims process for cancer patients.

--- Later in debate ---

[David Linden (Glasgow East) (SNP)]

Last month, a report by the pension provider Royal London showed that women lose, on average, £92,000 as a result of juggling part-time work and childcare. What are the Government going to do about that?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Paul Maynard)]

As the hon. Gentleman will have heard earlier, the proportion of women saving for their pensions has gone from 40% 10 years ago to 89% now.

[Dr James Davies (Vale of Clwyd) (Con)]

T7. People with disabilities often take on voluntary roles, as there can be societal barriers to gaining employment. My constituent Philippa has a son with Down’s syndrome who volunteers, providing much-valued music workshops for local children. How can the Minister ensure that the work of people with disabilities is properly recognised in the workplace?

[Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)]

T2.     Fife Gingerbread, based in my constituency, contacted me to point out that most of the provisions in the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Act 2023, which was unanimously agreed by the House and received Royal Assent at the end of June last year, have still not been brought into force. That means that far too many vulnerable people who want to make a claim through the Child Maintenance Service find that abusive ex-partners use it to control their behaviour. Why is it taking so long to put in place the measures in the Act?

[Paul Maynard]

I can confirm to the hon. Gentleman that the Child Maintenance Service has a domestic abuse plan to ensure that parents are not placed in danger as a consequence of any suggestion of domestic violence; for example, it has a centralised sort code to limit the risk of parental involvement.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

I wish to place on record my thanks to the Secretary of State for helping to guide my private Member’s Bill through Parliament. It lowers the pension auto-enrolment age from 22 to 18, and abolishes the lower earnings threshold. Briefly, has the Secretary of State received reassurances from the Chancellor that the necessary forms will be implemented in the spring Budget?

--- Later in debate ---

[Marco Longhi (Dudley North) (Con)]

T9. In 2005, the DWP failed to make a reasonable decision about targeting information at the women affected by state pension age changes. The ombudsman ruled that there was maladministration. These women, in Dudley and around the country, deserve more than just an apology. Does the Minister accept these findings, and if not, will he explain why not?

[Paul Maynard]

The Department is co-operating with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman investigation, which is ongoing, and it would not be appropriate to comment on it or the outcome.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

T8. My constituent’s universal credit payments have been stopped over Christmas for two years running, because her employer pays her salary early in December. Why will Ministers not do more to ensure that caseworkers know that they can use the discretion that they have, so that my constituents and others like her have financial certainty at what is a very difficult time of year?