Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken is to resolve a disputed case with the Child Maintenance Service in the most recent period for which figures are available.

We have interpreted dispute to refer to any situation where there is a disagreement between parents about the details of a child maintenance case which have an impact on the amount of child maintenance to be paid. As such, a dispute could refer to mandatory reconsiderations and/or appeals. Statistics on mandatory reconsiderations and appeals are published in tables 15 and 16 of the Child Maintenance Service: Aug 2013 to Mar 2018 (experimental) available online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-maintenance-service-aug-2013-to-mar-2018-experimental

Information on current mandatory reconsiderations and appeals will be available in future publications, information up to the end of June 2018 is due to be published in September 2018.

The volume and percentage of mandatory reconsiderations cleared within 20 working days is also published in table 15 of the Child Maintenance Service Statistics.

On average in 2017/18, appeals were with the Child Maintenance Service for 42 days. Where the parent was not satisfied with the outcome from appeal to the Child Maintenance Service, the parent can submit an appeal to HM Courts & Tribunal Service, who took on average 168 days to review an appeal.