Asked by: Sam Rushworth (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of payments were made through the Child Maintenance Service collect and pay system in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department regularly publishes Child Maintenance Service official statistics, with the latest statistics available to September 2025, and detailed quarterly statistics on the number of CMS Arrangements available on Stat-Xplore.
The table CMS Arrangement 1: Service Type and Paying Status by Quarter shows the number of CMS arrangements by service type for each quarter from March 2016 to September 2025. The table provides figures for the number of Collect & Pay arrangements for which the Paying Parent paid some child maintenance during the quarter, and those where no payment was made.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how his Department incentivises private contractors to increase face-to-face assessments.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Functional Assessment Service (FAS) contracts set clear targets that incentivise delivery of all assessments. Contracts also include a requirement for the delivery of face to face assessments.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many directors with responsibility for human resources are employed across their department and its executive agencies; and how many of those directors hold professional HR qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development or equivalent professional bodies.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Number of Directors with responsibility for HR across DWP and its Executive Agencies | Number of these who have a CIPD qualification or equivalent |
5 | 5 |
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
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 merits of reviewing the enforcement processes of the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service has a range of strong enforcement powers that are designed to get money flowing quickly, prevent the build-up of arrears and ensure children get the financial support they deserve. These powers include the ability to deduct directly from the paying parent’s earnings or bank accounts and disqualifications from holding or obtaining driving licenses and passports.
The Government has announced our intention to reform the Child Maintenance when parliamentary time allows system. We will remove Direct Pay and move to a single, strengthened Collect and Pay system which will allow the CMS to monitor all payments, identify missed or partial payments immediately, and take faster enforcement action. Ahead of this change, the CMS is already moving non-compliant parents more quickly from Direct Pay to Collect and Pay.
In March 2025, CMS established a process to manage high- and medium-risk cases using predictive analytics, resulting in earlier identification of at-risk cases and enabling caseworker intervention at the earliest opportunity where indicators of non-compliance are identified.
To further improve arrears collection, the CMS will introduce administrative liability orders to replace the current court-based process. This will streamline enforcement, reduce delays, and help the CMS act more quickly against parents who avoid their responsibilities. Work with HM Courts and Tribunals Service and the Scottish Government is underway, and regulations will be brought to Parliament as soon as possible.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to improve the enforcement processes of the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service has a range of strong enforcement powers that are designed to get money flowing quickly, prevent the build-up of arrears and ensure children get the financial support they deserve. These powers include the ability to deduct directly from the paying parent’s earnings or bank accounts and disqualifications from holding or obtaining driving licenses and passports.
The Government has announced our intention to reform the Child Maintenance when parliamentary time allows system. We will remove Direct Pay and move to a single, strengthened Collect and Pay system which will allow the CMS to monitor all payments, identify missed or partial payments immediately, and take faster enforcement action. Ahead of this change, the CMS is already moving non-compliant parents more quickly from Direct Pay to Collect and Pay.
In March 2025, CMS established a process to manage high- and medium-risk cases using predictive analytics, resulting in earlier identification of at-risk cases and enabling caseworker intervention at the earliest opportunity where indicators of non-compliance are identified.
To further improve arrears collection, the CMS will introduce administrative liability orders to replace the current court-based process. This will streamline enforcement, reduce delays, and help the CMS act more quickly against parents who avoid their responsibilities. Work with HM Courts and Tribunals Service and the Scottish Government is underway, and regulations will be brought to Parliament as soon as possible.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
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 effectiveness of requiring lower earning parents to take the other parent to court for child maintenance payments rated on income worth more than £3000 a week.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) calculates maintenance using the paying parent’s gross weekly income up to £3,000, ensuring contributions are fair and lower earners are protected through flat or nil rates. Where income exceeds £3,000, the receiving parent can apply to the courts for additional “top-up” maintenance beyond the statutory cap.
The CMS formula was introduced in 2012. At that time, Parliament chose to leave securing additional maintenance assessed on income over the level of a cap set at annual earnings limit of around £156,000 to the family courts, via top-up orders, as income of this magnitude tends to be generated and invested via more complex financial mechanisms than the administrative service is designed to handle. The cap therefore ensures that the statutory scheme remains a simple, administratively efficient formula, and the courts handle bespoke, higher value disputes.
All cases can secure substantial maintenance payments via the existing administrative system, and for the vast majority of cases this will be their only source of maintenance. For the small minority where their former partner has exceptionally high income, the system is designed to ensure that court involvement is available, by limiting that involvement to cases where judicial discretion is genuinely required.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost was of centrally provided career coaching, career transition, or redeployment support accessed by Department for Work and Pensions staff in each calendar quarter from Q1 2023 to the most recent quarter for which data is available.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below covers the period from April 2023 to December 2025 for spend relating to centrally provided career coaching, career transition, or redeployment support accessed by DWP employees and March 2023 to August 2025 for spend relating to centrally provided career coaching within Talent, accessed by DWP employees.
| Centrally provided career coaching, transition, or redeployment support | Career coaching within Talent |
2023 | £199,180.38 | £206,253 |
|
| £51,563 |
Qtr2 | £63,105.19 | £51,563 |
Qtr3 | £71,485.00 | £51,563 |
Qtr4 | £64,590.19 | £51,563 |
2024 | £194,180.33 | £161,091 |
Qtr1 | £47,143.19 | £161,091 |
Qtr2 | £40,658.19 | £0 |
Qtr3 | £38,085.63 | £0 |
Qtr4 | £68,293.32 | £0 |
2025 | £165,239.03 | £127,948 |
Qtr1 | £51,671.17 | £0 |
Qtr2 | £42,873.93 | £127,948 |
Qtr3 | £34,781.93 | £0 |
Qtr4 | £35,912.00 | £0 |
|
|
|
Total Spend | £558,599.74 | £495,292.00 |
* For the Leaders Like You programme in Year 1 (2023), payments to Ernst & Young were made monthly. For ease of presentation, the 2023 figures are shown quarterly in the table. From 2024 the payment changed from monthly to a single annual invoice.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many nights were spent in hotels by Departmental staff in financial year 2024-25 by the star rating of the hotel.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP policy is clear that a hotel may only be booked for clear business reasons and with approval from the staff member’s manager. The policy also puts limits on the cost of hotels, which naturally excludes premium hotels.
The total number nights spent in hotels in 2024/25 was 73,893. Information on hotel star rating is not routinely recorded in our system, but any stays must comply with the relevant departmental cost limit.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will hold discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive on how people using the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers scheme in England can find employment in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Skills and employment support policies are fully transferred to the Northern Ireland Executive, and the nature and scope of support for young people is a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive to determine. Senior officials from the DWP and Northern Ireland Executive are already working together to share learning and best practices whilst ensuring effective integration of reserved and devolved provision.
In England, the eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers are testing approaches to identify and deliver localised support to young people who are or at risk of not being in employment, education or training. This includes strengthening local coordination through local leadership and outreach with partners including third sector organisations, employers and colleges to better connect young people with education, employment and training opportunities.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, the Department for Work and Pensions has commissioned an evaluation, which is expected to build evidence on the effectiveness of the initiative. This will focus on improving employment outcomes, reducing economic inactivity, enhancing health and well-being, increasing participation in education and training, and strengthening systems integration. We expect to publish interim findings during the next two years and will develop the value for money assessment once longer term impacts have developed.
We will continue to work with the Northern Ireland Executive on the important issue of youth unemployment across the UK.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when are the private contracts for PIP assessments reviewed; and what ongoing scrutiny does his Department carry out on these contractors.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Functional Assessment Service (FAS) contracts (which include the PIP assessment service) are reviewed on an ongoing basis as part of comprehensive contract and performance management undertaken by the Department, ensuring contractors are held to account in fulfilling their contractual obligations.