Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff of her Department have been transferred from working on Child Maintenance Service issues since March 2020.

To meet the unprecedented demand for benefits during the pandemic, and ongoing challenge to front line services that the Department for Work and Pensions has faced since the outbreak, from March 2020, of the approximate 6,800 Child Maintenance staff, 322 FTE (to date) have been transferred on a permanent basis to support benefit delivery. This means we can continue to support separated parents, as part of the departments wider efforts to provide financial support through the welfare system.

Child Maintenance Service are currently recruiting to provide backfill for the people who have been moved to support welfare delivery.