Asked by: Luke Murphy (Labour - Basingstoke)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the Child Maintenance Service formula in cases where the paying parent is the sole earner in a household supporting children with registered (a) disabilities and (b) additional needs; and whether he plans to review the formula to reflect financial pressures faced by families caring for disabled children, including higher daily living costs and the need for specialised equipment.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) formula is calculated on the paying parent’s gross income, the number of qualifying children, overnight care arrangements, and any additional children in their care – known as ‘relevant other children’. The formula does not automatically account for the higher costs associated with caring for children with disabilities or additional needs.
However, we recognise the additional financial pressures faced by families caring for disabled children. Therefore, the CMS provides a special expenses variation which allows paying parents to request an adjustment where they incur significant costs related to the illness or disability of ‘relevant other children’. The permitted expenses cover a wide range of costs, including personal care, heating and specialised equipment.
In addition, the Government is reviewing the CMS calculation to ensure the formula remains fit for purpose and reflects current societal and financial realities. Any proposed changes will be subject to public consultation and would require primary legislation and Parliamentary approval.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they consider the receipt of child maintenance to be important to the wellbeing of children.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to ensuring that parents meet their financial responsibilities towards their children where they don’t live with them. The role of the Child Maintenance Service is crucial to help meet this objective where parents cannot make a child maintenance arrangement between themselves. In the 12 months up to September 2025, the CMS arranged around £1.6 billion in child maintenance payments.
Where parents fail to meet their financial obligation towards their children, the Child Maintenance Service will use its wide range of strong enforcement powers to help ensure they fulfil their responsibility.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much money for child maintenance was collected under the collect and pay service in the past three years; and for how many children this money was collected.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department publishes Child Maintenance Service official statistics every three months. Table 4 of the latest National tables provides the total amount of maintenance paid via Collect and Pay each quarter between January 2015 and September 2025.
The below table shows Money paid each Quarter via Collect and Pay for Great Britain, for the past 12 quarters October 2022 to September 2025
Quarter | Maintenance paid (£ millions) |
Oct to Dec 2022 | 49.1 |
Jan to Mar 2023 | 49.1 |
Apr to Jun 2023 | 52.1 |
Jul to Sep 2023 | 57.5 |
Oct to Dec 2023 | 56.6 |
Jan to Mar 2024 | 58.7 |
Apr to Jun 2024 | 61.2 |
Jul to Sep 2024 | 65.4 |
Oct to Dec 2024 | 67.8 |
Jan to Mar 2025 | 72.5 |
Apr to Jun 2025 | 78.2 |
Jul to Sep 2025 | 84.4 |
Source: Child Maintenance Service Management Information
Notes:
The below table shows the number of children covered by Collect and Pay arrangements by payment status, for Great Britain, by quarter end, December 2022 to September 2025
Quarter end [note 2] | Collect & Pay, paying [note 3] | Collect & Pay, not paying [note 4] | Total |
December 2022 | 167,183 | 140,187 | 307,370 |
March 2023 | 170,753 | 144,587 | 315,343 |
June 2023 | 181,346 | 140,181 | 321,526 |
September 2023 | 191,532 | 137,948 | 329,485 |
December 2023 | 192,539 | 146,012 | 338,548 |
March 2024 | 200,457 | 146,153 | 346,605 |
June 2024 | 208,444 | 150,600 | 359,038 |
September 2024 | 216,082 | 160,165 | 376,245 |
December 2024 | 223,538 | 169,759 | 393,297 |
March 2025 | 235,795 | 172,915 | 408,713 |
June 2025 | 256,722 | 164,079 | 420,799 |
September 2025 | 271,720 | 160,907 | 432,627 |
Source: Stat-Xplore
Note:
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many liability orders regarding child maintenance they have applied for in the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department publishes Child Maintenance Service official statistics every three months. Table 6.1 of the latest National tables provides information about enforcement actions used by the Child Maintenance Service each quarter between April 2015 and September 2025 including the number of liability orders applied for in England and Wales.
The below table shows volumes of Liability Orders applied for in England and Wales, for the past 12 quarters from October 2022 to September 2025
Quarter | Liability Orders applied for |
Oct to Dec 2022 | 2,700 |
Jan to Mar 2023 | 4,300 |
Apr to Jun 2023 | 4,000 |
Jul to Sep 2023 | 4,100 |
Oct to Dec 2023 | 4,500 |
Jan to Mar 2024 | 5,300 |
Apr to Jun 2024 | 4,500 |
Jul to Sep 2024 | 3,500 |
Oct to Dec 2024 | 3,700 |
Jan to Mar 2025 | 4,000 |
Apr to Jun 2025 | 3,400 |
Jul to Sep 2025 | 3,600 |
Source: Child Maintenance Service Administrative and Clerical Data
Note:
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of delays by the Child Maintenance Service on (a) parents and (b) children who rely on child maintenance payments.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We know that children in separated families are more likely to live in poverty than those in non-separated families. Child maintenance payments through both statutory and non-statutory arrangements keep approximately 120,000 children out of poverty each year.
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) works hard to make sure parents pay in full and on time to minimise delays in payments.
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. CMS has implemented significant improvements to speed up action when payments first break down, targeting enforcement actions more effectively.
CMS undertake regular quality assurance checks to ensure processes are delivered accurately, reducing the requirement for rework and reinforcing our aim to ‘get it right first time’. These measures demonstrate our commitment to minimising delays and ensuring that child maintenance reaches children promptly.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Child Maintenance Service is meeting its internal target times for progressing cases and taking enforcement action.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to providing a modern and efficient service for all customers.
The CMS continues to strengthen its enforcement activity to ensure that parents meet their financial responsibilities. Where parents can afford to pay but do not, the CMS has a range of strong enforcement powers that it can and does use swiftly to influence a return to compliance.
Published statistics show a significant increase in compliance, with the proportion of paying parents who paid some maintenance rising from 64% in the quarter ending September 2022 to 74% in the quarter ending September 2025.
The published quarterly CMS statistics provide information on application clearances, change of circumstances clearances and Collect and Pay compliance, with the latest data available for quarter ending September 2025.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of delays in Child Maintenance Service case reviews on the likelihood of later corrective or enforcement action.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) relies on receiving accurate and current information to make child maintenance assessments. If additional or new evidence is provided after a child maintenance assessment has been made for example a Mandatory Reconsideration this can lead to corrective action being taken.
As more customers apply to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) the demand for the service is increasing. To allow the CMS to meet this demand and provide an efficient service the service continuously looks at the resources they have and where it should focus their efforts to get the greatest value for money and deliver the best service to their customers.
The CMS reviews overall resource supply and takes appropriate steps to ensure that staffing levels meet current demands. The CMS has an ongoing recruitment campaign for 2026; this will ensure the CMS is resourced to meet current and future forecasted demand.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of delays in Child Maintenance Service case reviews on administrative costs.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) relies on receiving accurate and current information to make child maintenance assessments. If additional or new evidence is provided after a child maintenance assessment has been made for example a Mandatory Reconsideration this can lead to corrective action being taken.
As more customers apply to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) the demand for the service is increasing. To allow the CMS to meet this demand and provide an efficient service the service continuously looks at the resources they have and where it should focus their efforts to get the greatest value for money and deliver the best service to their customers.
The CMS reviews overall resource supply and takes appropriate steps to ensure that staffing levels meet current demands. The CMS has an ongoing recruitment campaign for 2026; this will ensure the CMS is resourced to meet current and future forecasted demand.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of staffing levels and caseload pressures within the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As more customers apply to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) the demand for its service is increasing. To allow it to meet this demand and provide an efficient service, the CMS continuously reviews its resources and where to focus its efforts to get the greatest value for money and deliver the best service to customers.
The CMS reviews its overall resource supply and takes appropriate steps to ensure that staffing levels meet current demands. The service is currently resourced at a level appropriate to its operational demand, ensuring that support is directed to the teams and functions where it is most needed.
There is an ongoing recruitment campaign for 2026; this will ensure CMS continues to be resourced to meet current and future forecast demand.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will provide additional resources to the Child Maintenance Service to reduce delays in case progression.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As more customers apply to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) the demand for its service is increasing. To allow it to meet this demand and provide an efficient service, the CMS continuously reviews its resources and where to focus its efforts to get the greatest value for money and deliver the best service to customers.
The CMS reviews its overall resource supply and takes appropriate steps to ensure that staffing levels meet current demands. The service is currently resourced at a level appropriate to its operational demand, ensuring that support is directed to the teams and functions where it is most needed.
There is an ongoing recruitment campaign for 2026; this will ensure CMS continues to be resourced to meet current and future forecast demand.