Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to resume chasing missed child maintenance payments.

Child Maintenance Service is currently offering a reduced service due to coronavirus pandemic, in agreement with ministers, and will focus on priority work. We will not take action to collect arrears during this current period but we will collect any unpaid amounts including any missed payments at a later date.

The DWP are currently formulating a recovery plan, which details our staged approach to move back to normal service. Based on current planning assumptions, Child Maintenance Service expects to provide further detail on the approach to missed payments in July 2020.