Asked by: Antoinette Sandbach (Liberal Democrat - Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of parents who did not report income increases of 25 per cent or more to Child Maintenance Services in (a) 2013, (b) 2014, (c) 2015, (d) 2016 and (e) 2017.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Department has not made any estimate of the number of parents who do not report increases of 25% or more to their income to Child Maintenance Services. Such changes, where not reported, will be picked up from income data obtained by HMRC at annual review. Where a parent is required to report a change in income but does not, then this change can be backdated to when it occurred.
Asked by: Antoinette Sandbach (Liberal Democrat - Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many parents have been prosecuted for failing to report increases in their income to the Child Maintenance Service or Child Support Agency in each of the last three years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
There have been no prosecutions undertaken in the last three years due solely to parents failing to report “increases in their income”. Prosecutions would be undertaken by CMG for under-declaration of income under the Fraud Act or 14(A)2 of the Child Support Act. These prosecutions focus on wilful non-disclosure of income streams and rarely relate to a single failure to disclose in-year increases.
We will have prosecuted people with an element of non-disclosures (of increases to income) but these non-disclosures will only represent a small part of the overall prosecution on each case. Therefore we cannot separate increases to income as a single prosecution type.
We complete Annual reviews using HMRC data and where we identify backdated increases to income, we will reassess the historical assessment and raise any arrears, taking steps to collect. If the paying parent then fails to pay these arrears we can register the liability in court and take enforcement action to secure the debt, including – in some cases – enforcement including imprisonment. These actions however, relate to the debt (and failure to pay), and not the “increase in income”.
Asked by: Antoinette Sandbach (Liberal Democrat - Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many investigations have been undertaken by the Financial Investigation Unit of the Child Maintenance Group in each of the financial years since April 2012 to March 2013.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
Child Maintenance Group’s Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) was established on 1 April 2014.
For the financial year 2014 – 2015 the FIU conducted 3,749 investigations resulting in both civil and criminal investigations.
For the financial year 2015 – 2016 the FIU conducted 3,186 investigations resulting in both civil and criminal investigations.
Asked by: Antoinette Sandbach (Liberal Democrat - Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his policy is on the consideration by the Child Maintenance Service of any evidence which would be admissible in a court or in a Tribunal as to the work status of a non-resident parent and place of work including posts made on social media.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The Secretary of State will consider any evidence provided in relation to any element of a Maintenance Calculation when making a new liability decision, or reconsidering an existing one.
Asked by: Antoinette Sandbach (Liberal Democrat - Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many prosecutions have been undertaken by the Financial Investigation Unit within the Child Maintenance Group in each financial year since 2012; and how many civil actions have been taken by the Financial Investigation Unit in cases where there is not sufficient evidence to justify a criminal prosecution to recover funds owed to Parents with Care in that time.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
Child Maintenance Group’s Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) was established on 1 April 2014.
During the year 2014/15, the FIU initiated 65 criminal prosecutions and also enabled civil enforcement action on 1,697 cases, collecting a total of £528,201.
During the year 2015/16, the FIU initiated 70 criminal prosecutions and also enabled civil enforcement action on 1,424 cases, collecting a total of £581,217.