Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the transition of child maintenance arrangements from 2017 on children and their parents.

My Department considered the effect of case closure on children and their parents through a public consultation: “Supporting separated families; securing children’s futures” in July 2012. Our response to the consultation was published in November 2013.

We have monitored the effects of case closure and the new statutory child maintenance scheme and published a research report on case closure in December 2016. We will continue to monitor the effects as the remaining cases are closed.