Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints about the Child Maintenance Service were investigated by the Independent Case Examiner (a) overall, (b) by the receiving parent and (c) by the paying parent in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Independent Case Examiner’s office investigated 2,142 Child Maintenance Service (CMS) cases over the last 5 complete reporting years, broken down as follows:
Reporting Year | CMS Investigations |
2019/20 | 188 |
2020/21 | 267 |
2021/22 | 396 |
2022/23 | 507 |
2023/24 | 784 |
The Independent Case Examiner’s office does not hold the information to provide a response to parts (b) and (c) of the question.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help ensure that the CMS child maintenance calculation adequately reflects the (a) living expenses and (b) income of both parties.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) operates on the principle that both parents have financial responsibility for their child, including their food and clothing, as well as contributing towards the associated costs of running the home that the child lives in.
The calculation represents an amount of money that is broadly commensurate with the amount that a paying parent would spend on the child if they were still living with them, irrespective of the income or assets of the receiving parent.
The CMS will assess how much the paying parent should pay the receiving parent, which in most cases is based on a percentage of the paying parent's gross annual income. The income of the receiving parent is not taken into consideration as they are already contributing as the child's primary caregiver and their income should not remove the responsibility of a paying parent to support their child.
A review is ongoing to look again at the child maintenance calculation to ensure it is fit for purpose and fair for both parents in light of societal changes since it was last looked at.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
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 the accuracy of the (a) systems and (b) IT used by the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Regular updates ensure the Child Maintenance Service's systems comply with policy. Each change follows industry standards, including thorough testing before and after implementation. The core principles for calculating Child Maintenance have remained largely unchanged since 2012, with no current system defects affecting these calculations.
The Department for Work and Pensions rigorously monitors accuracy, with the National Audit Office setting a target of monetary value errors under 1%. This standard is consistently met.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
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 introducing multi-year funding employability programmes funded by her Department.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Employment programmes such as the Restart Scheme and the Work and Health Programme currently use multi-year funding to ensure the Department secures value for money and delivers employment support that is cost effective.
The Department is also working with local areas in England and Wales to deliver the manifesto commitment to enable local areas to shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer for local people. This will start with multi-year funding to expand the availability of a new national supported employment programme with an offer shaped around local priorities. This new programme will help disabled people, those with health conditions and those with complex employment barriers to find and fulfil their potential to work.
The main costs for these programmes and their providers are staffing, estates and digital infrastructure, all of which would be higher for single year than for multi-year funded programmes due to a combination of set-up and recruitment costs being absorbed over lower volumes and costs of temporary staff, short leases and other provider costs being higher generally.
The benefits of multi-year funded programmes include reduced costs, increased value for money and positive returns to the Exchequer.