Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the 2020-21 Child Maintenance Service statistics release, for what reason there are 7,100 unassigned arrangements for the Child Maintenance Service; and what steps her Department is taking to reduce that number.
Unassigned arrangements are cases where the applications process is not yet complete.
The latest Child Maintenance Service (CMS) statistics show that over 90% of applications are usually cleared within 12 weeks. The statistics can be found in “Table 1: Applications to the Child Maintenance Service, Great Britain, July 2020 to June 2021” of the National Tables of the latest Child Maintenance Service (CMS) publication here:
Applications are considered 'cleared' when one of the following occurs:
a) the amount of child maintenance to be paid has been calculated and an arrangement to pay maintenance between the two parents has been agreed;
b) the amount of child maintenance to be paid has been calculated as zero; or
c) the child maintenance application has been closed.