Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's consultation, child maintenance: closing cases in Segments 3 and 4 simultaneously, published on 27 October 2014, what effect such simultaneous closure will have on (a) forecast volumes and the cost of calls demands to the Child Maintenance Options Service, (b) forecast volumes and cost of recruitment and training of new staff for the Child Maintenance Options Service and (c) forecast staff numbers and costs associated with the validation of child maintenance arrears in closed cases in the year from April 2015.

Child Maintenance Group is still considering the precise number of case closure letters that will be issued each week for Segments 3 and 4. Consequently, it isn’t yet possible to describe how confirmed letter numbers will influence forecasting assumptions. As all CSA cases will need to be closed over the agreed transitional timeline, resource demands will remain the same regardless of whether Segments 3 and 4 are implemented simultaneously.