Children: Maintenance

(asked on 4th October 2024) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that parents are not able to avoid (a) Child Maintenance liability and (b) Deduction of Earning Orders by changing employment.


Answered by
Andrew Western Portrait
Andrew Western
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 9th October 2024

Where parents frequently change employment, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) can use alternative powers such as deducting child maintenance directly from their bank account. The CMS has a range of strong enforcement options that are designed to get money flowing quickly, prevent the build-up of arrears and ensure children get the financial support they deserve. Upon changing employer, the child maintenance liability will remain unaffected unless there is also a change to income which is greater than 25%.

The Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 delivered primary legislation to accelerate the enforcement process. The changes seek to introduce a simpler administrative process to obtain a liability order against those paying parents who actively avoid their responsibilities, enabling the CMS to take faster enforcement action. We will monitor the effectiveness of this.

The CMS has a relatively low percentage of unpaid maintenance. Only 8% of the total maintenance due to be paid since the start of the CMS remains to be collected through the collect & pay service. This was as high as 17% in March 2015.

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