Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the merits of writing off debt payments for Child Support Agency payments valued below £500.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has the ability to write off Child Support Agency (CSA) debt that is £500 and under in circumstances where no payment has been made within the last 90 days and where administrative powers have been considered but were deemed inappropriate or ineffective.

Writing off is not a quick or easy decision and involves exhausting other approaches to deal with the debt. All Child Support Agency debt is now at least 11 years old.

In the year ending March 2024 £17.8m of CSA debt was collected and £13.5m was written off.