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 including consideration of coercive and controlling behaviour between parents into Child Maintenance Service calculations and decision-making processes.

Whilst calculation and decision-making processes are set out in legislation, and decision makers must act in accordance with those statutory provisions, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to ensuring victims and survivors of abuse get the help and support they need to use the CMS safely. All CMS caseworkers receive extensive training, which is regularly reviewed, and follow a well-managed process with clear steps to support and recognise domestic abuse, this includes how to recognise and address coercive and controlling behaviour.

We have announced our plan to reform child maintenance by removing direct pay and streamlining our service into one service type. Managing all CMS cases in one service will provide greater awareness of cases where coercive and controlling behaviour is an issue, and better support victims and survivors of domestic abuse who use the CMS as it will remove any need for contact between parents and remove the need for receiving parents to report missed payments. We will introduce these changes as parliamentary time allows.