Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to improve (a) response times to complaints and (b) customer service at the Child Maintenance Service.

DWP aim to contact customers within 15 working days to clear their complaint or agree how to investigate it if will take longer.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has made changes to the way they communicate with customers. This includes expanding the facilities offered through the online self-service and web chat, allowing parents to access their account 24 hours a day, seven days a week at a time that works for them.

CMS use customer feedback from complaints to drive improvements, we have an ongoing programme of activity including both technical and behavioural learning for our caseworkers.