Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that paying parents do not delay settlement of their child maintenance liabilities.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take steps to improve compliance, and deal with non-compliance before enforcement action is needed. Where compliance cannot be achieved and the parent is employed, we will attempt to deduct their maintenance and any arrears directly from their earnings. The CMS can also deduct directly from bank accounts as a lump sum or regular amount. We have a range of other strong enforcement powers, including the use of Enforcement Agents to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, disqualification from holding a UK passport or commitment to prison.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of the Child Maintenance Service’s deduction from earnings orders for child maintenance were not complied with in 2018.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information relating to the number of Deduction from Earnings Orders / Requests being used to collect child maintenance each quarter, and their compliance is published online as part of the quarterly Child Maintenance Service statistics. The latest publication includes information to September 2019. This is available here:
The requested information is published in the National Tables, Table 12 (“Enforcement Actions”).
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that employers are complying with the seven day deadline of deduction from earnings orders, to ensure child maintenance is deducted from the parents pay.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
To ensure that employers meet their obligations to deduct child maintenance from earnings, the Child Maintenance Group (CMG) has taken the following steps:
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-resident parents were fined for non-payment of child maintenance in 2018.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service does not fine Paying Parents for not paying their child maintenance. They do however recover the unpaid child maintenance through the use of enforcements actions such as deductions from earrings orders, deduction orders and civil enforcement. In cases where the Child Maintenance Service believe the Paying Parent can pay, but are refusing to do so they can apply to the courts to send the Paying Parents to prison, disqualifying them from holding or obtaining a passport or driving licence. The figures described can be found in the quarterly National Tables for the Child Maintenance Service statistics (data to September 2019), Table 12 (“Enforcement Actions”). This is available here:
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in Ogmore constituency have (a) opted out after being auto-enrolled into a workplace pension and (b) saved more than the auto-enrolment minimum contribution.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Automatic enrolment has achieved a quiet revolution through getting employees into the habit of pension saving, and reversing the decline in workplace pension participation in the decade prior to these reforms. Since automatic enrolment started in 2012 participation rates have been transformed with 87% of eligible employees saving into a workplace pension in 2018, up from 55% in 2012.
The Department does not hold data for individual constituencies in relation to opt outs or the number of individuals who have saved above the automatic enrolment minimum contribution level. However, we do know that overall around 9% of automatically enrolled workers have chosen to opt out which is significantly below original estimates; and our latest evaluation report shows that, in April 2017, approximately 5.9 million eligible employees were already meeting the April 2019 minimum contribution rates1.
I am providing the following information about the impact of automatic enrolment in your constituency, as at end of September 20192:
In the Ogmore constituency since 2012, approximately 4,000 eligible jobholders have been automatically enrolled and 820 employers have met their duties.
1Automatic Enrolment Evaluation Report 2018, available via the following weblink: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/764964/Automatic_Enrolment_Evaluation_Report_2018.pdf.
2The Pensions Regulator’s data on Automatic enrolment declaration of compliance by constituency, available via the following weblink:
https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/research-and-analysis/data-requests