Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) promptly resolves complaints regarding the reimbursement of overpaid maintenance under Section 41B of the Child Support Act 1991; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact on families of delayed responses by the CMS to inquiries from hon. Members while internal financial processes remain outstanding.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) operates in line with the Department for Work and Pensions' (DWP) complaints service standard, which aims to respond to complaints within 15 working days or, where a case will take longer than 15 days to respond to, set a resolution plan with the customer where cases are complex and may take longer. A resolution plan is a clear outline of how we will address and resolve a complaint. It sets out what actions will be taken, who is responsible, and the expected timescales for completing these actions.

The Department recognises that complaint response times have not consistently met expected standards in recent months due to increased volumes and a rise in complex cases. Improving timeliness of responses remains a key operational priority.

To address this, the Department has taken urgent action to deploy additional resources to complaints and correspondence teams, prioritised the reduction of backlogs, strengthened performance monitoring and senior oversight, and improved case management processes to support faster and more consistent responses.

In circumstances where a customer has overpaid child maintenance, Section 41B of the Child Support Act 1991 provides the Secretary of State with discretion to repay all or part of the overpaid amount. This is a discretionary power rather than an entitlement, and its use is considered carefully in light of the individual circumstances of each case. As a general principle, overpayments are addressed, where possible and appropriate, by offsetting them against future child maintenance liabilities. Repayment under Section 41B would therefore generally be considered only in exceptional circumstances where adjustment against future liability is not possible or would not provide an appropriate means of resolving the overpayment.

The Department recognises on-going financial matters can cause uncertainty and potential financial pressure for families. The CMS therefore treats financial hardship seriously and has support mechanisms in place to assist vulnerable customers where urgent help is required.