Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect on the processing of (a) new and (b) existing Child Maintenance Service cases of new parents' inability to register births during the covid-19 outbreak; and what assessment her Department has made of the effect on that service's users of the Child Maintenance Service not being able to backdate payments more than 12 weeks once those new birth registrations have been confirmed.

No assessment has been made.

In response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, temporary changes to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) were introduced to ensure we could continue to deliver our priorities in supporting separated parents while also supporting wider efforts across the Department to provide financial support to more people. The CMS has now reinstated a full service.