Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment into the potential merits of amending the Child Maintenance Services' (CMS) variation rules to (a) better reflect the financial capacity of a person to pay and (b) include categories of wealth which fall outside the CMS criteria.

Within the 2012 scheme of child maintenance, a broad spectrum of taxable income can be taken into account in the maintenance calculation as part of a variation.

We believe all parents have a responsibility to financially contribute to their children’s upbringing and the best way we have of establishing a fair contribution is a calculation of their liability based on their income level.

The definition of income within variations is designed to make the best use of additional sources of taxable income captured by self-assessment, referred to as ‘unearned income’. This includes income from property, savings and investments and other miscellaneous sources.

Receiving ‘unearned income’ information directly from HM Revenue and Customs makes it more difficult for individuals to seek to minimise the amount of child maintenance they pay. A variation can also be considered if a receiving parent has evidence that a paying parent is diverting income.

We have no plans to widen our variation categories further.