Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her planned timetable is for responding to her Department's consultation entitled Child Maintenance: Improving the collection and transfer of payments, published on 8 May 2024.

A consultation on proposed reforms to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) was published by the previous Government on 8 May 2024. These proposed reforms included removing Direct Pay and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster, as well as exploring how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported. This consultation followed the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Act which received royal assent in July 2023.

The consultation was extended by this Government at the end of July and ran until 30 September 2024. We are analysing the responses we have received, and the Government will publish a response in due course.