Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of unreliable child maintenance payments on child poverty.

We know that children in separated families are poorer and more likely to live in poverty than those in non-separated families. Child maintenance payment through both statutory and non-statutory arrangements keep approximately 120,000 children out of poverty each year. DWP estimates that streamlining the CMS into a single maintenance collection and transfer service in line with our current proposals for change could result in around 20,000 fewer children in poverty.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) will work hard to make sure parents pay in full and on time. Where parents fail to take responsibility for paying for their children, the CMS will not hesitate to use the range enforcement powers available. The CMS is committed to using these powers fairly and in the best interests of children and separated families. Our current proposals should result in securing money for children more quickly in many of these cases.