Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2024 to Question 15000 on Pension Credit and State Retirement Pensions: Suffolk Coastal, what estimate his Department has made of when that data will be updated and made available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department publishes quarterly statistics on recipients of a wide range of benefits, including State Pension and Pension Credit, by various geographical breakdowns including Westminster parliamentary constituency, on Stat-Xplore. The latest statistics are available up to quarter ending May 2023 for State Pension, and quarter ending August 2023 for Pension Credit. The State Pension statistics were recently temporarily suspended so are currently only available to May 2023, with a progress update on their re-instatement due on 13 March 2024.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to commence section 25 of the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 20 July 2023, it amended section 32M of the Child Support Act 1991 as inserted by section 25 of the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008.
When commenced it will streamline enforcement processes by removing the requirement to obtain a court issued liability order and enable the Secretary of State to issue an administrative liability order. This will reduce the process from 22 weeks to as low as 6 weeks, making it quicker to get money to children.
A public consultation to seek views on proposed regulations to be introduced for administrative liability orders concluded in November 2023, and the Government response was published on 12 February 2024. Legislation will be brought forward as soon as possible.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which business or organisation has been awarded the Help to Claim contract for April 2024 to March 2026.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We expect to announce the outcome of the Future Support Offer 2024 grant competition for Help to Claim in March.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people receive (a) the state pension and (b) pension credit in Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are currently 30,114 people in receipt of the State Pension in the quarter ending May 2023 in Suffolk Coastal Constituency.
There are currently 1,977 people in receipt of Pension Credit in the quarter ending August 2023 in Suffolk Coastal Constituency.
Figures are published and available via Stat-Xplore
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much child maintenance has (a) been recovered and paid to the receiving parent and (b) not been paid in each of the last three years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service and the latest statistics are available up to September 2023, with statistics for the amount of maintenance due and the amount paid published in Table 5 of the National tables.
The relevant information is included in the table below.
CMS does not measure the compliance of Paying Parents on the Direct Pay service. Unpaid Maintenance is the value of maintenance scheduled to be paid, but not received from a Paying Parent through the Collect and Pay service, including any transferred from Direct Pay.
CMS Money Due and Paid each Quarter, Great Britain, January 2021 to September 2023
Quarter | Maintenance due to be paid via Direct Pay (£millions) | Maintenance due to be paid via Collect and Pay (£millions) | Maintenance paid via Collect and Pay (£millions) | Unpaid Maintenance (£millions) |
Jan to Mar 2021 | 203.1 | 58.3 | 45.4 | 12.9 |
Apr to Jun 2021 | 212.3 | 60.9 | 46.9 | 14.0 |
Jul to Sep 2021 | 217.1 | 63.1 | 47.4 | 15.7 |
Oct to Dec 2021 | 210.2 | 64.4 | 46.6 | 17.8 |
Jan to Mar 2022 | 207.1 | 66.8 | 45.6 | 21.2 |
Apr to Jun 2022 | 219.7 | 69.6 | 48.8 | 20.8 |
Jul to Sep 2022 | 231.2 | 71.4 | 49.4 | 22.0 |
Oct to Dec 2022 | 231.7 | 69.7 | 49.1 | 20.6 |
Jan to Mar 2023 | 237.0 | 72.0 | 49.1 | 22.9 |
Apr to Jun 2023 | 252.4 | 75.8 | 52.1 | 23.7 |
Jul to Sep 2023 | 263.2 | 79.1 | 57.5 | 21.6 |
Source: Child Maintenance Service Management Information
Notes:
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government's consultation entitled Child Maintenance: Improving our enforcement powers through the commencement of curfew orders, published on 9 July 2022, what his Department's planned timetable is for laying the commencement order relating to curfew orders.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service already has a suite of strong enforcement powers at its disposal. These include, using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving licence or UK passport, deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts or even commitment to prison. We have explored how Curfews could be implemented as an additional enforcement measure to improve compliance. 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. We are continuing to keep their introduction under review.