Asked by: Fred Thomas (Labour - Plymouth Moor View)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take to (a) tackle the fraudulent reporting of earnings to the Child Maintenance Service and (b) ensure that parents are paid the correct amount of maintenance.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The primary goal of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is to ensure that children receive the financial support they are entitled to. To achieve this, the CMS collaborates with HMRC and Benefit systems to accurately calculate maintenance payments. This collaboration helps prevent paying parents from misrepresenting their income. Parents can make a request to the CMS to have other forms of income not previously considered included in the maintenance calculation.
To tackle fraudulent reporting of earnings, if there is any suspicion of income misrepresentation, the Financial Investigations Unit (FIU) steps in to conduct a thorough investigation. Complex income and cases where a paying parent may be responsible for declaring their own income can also be investigated by the FIU. This specialist team can request information from financial institutions to check the accuracy of information the CMS is given. When an investigation finds evidence of fraud, the FIU will seek to prosecute or forward the case to HMRC for fraud action.