Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plans to publish the unlikely to pay guidance given to child maintenance staff to assist them in the determination of whether a non-paying parent should be required to pay child maintenance due via the Collect and Pay Service.

We are planning to publish the Child Maintenance Decision Making Guidance online, alongside DWP’s existing Social Security Decision Making Guidance in summer 2017.

The guidance is currently being reviewed and updated, and will include guidance used to decide whether a paying parent should be deemed unlikely to pay.