Child Maintenance Service: Standards
(asked on 25th November 2020) - View Source
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 (a) effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service and (b) level of consistency that service provides to both parties.
As of June 2020, 741,200 children are covered by Child Maintenance Service arrangements; the majority of cases use Direct Pay, where parents arrange maintenance payments between themselves.
During the quarter ending June 2020, £238.4 million in child maintenance was paid through the Collect & Pay service, or due to be paid through Direct Pay.
When measuring the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service, the Service collects data on the rate of compliance of paying parents using the Collect & Pay service. The most recent quarterly statistics show that 74 per cent of all paying parents due to pay through the Collect & Pay Service cleared some of their child maintenance.
At the end of June 2020, 41,800 Paying Parents on the Collect & Pay service had a Deduction from Earnings Order / Request in force. £27.1m was collected from these Paying Parents during the quarter. In the quarter ending June 2020, £2.6m was deducted directly from Paying Parents’ bank accounts.
These figures are published quarterly as part of the Child Maintenance Service experimental statistics, which can be found here:
The Child Maintenance Service offers an accessible, impartial and secure service for all clients. The Department and Ministers continue to meet stakeholders regularly, and maintain an open dialogue on how to improve the service.