Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has read the report by Gingerbread published on 12 January 2018 which states that the majority of single parents do not receive child maintenance payments.

Officials have read Gingerbread’s report and continue to work closely with a range of external stakeholders when developing policy. The analysis of child maintenance payments referred to in the report is based on data collected in 2011/12, so predates the introduction of the reformed child maintenance scheme in 2013. We want to ensure that children from all separated families have an effective maintenance arrangement. Child Maintenance Options provides free and impartial information to support parents to make arrangements that work for them.