Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of self-reported reductions in paying parent income in February 2020 on payments made by the Child Maintenance Service.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) made temporary changes to its services to support wider departmental efforts through the Covid19 pandemic whilst remaining committed that over time everyone pays or receives the right amount of child maintenance.

During the early stages of the pandemic, the CMS began accepting on a temporary basis verbal evidence of a reduction in income and advised paying parents to reduce their payments and then retrospectively reviewed the calculation. This gave rise to the normal appeal rights for both parents.

The CMS has now restored most of its full capacity with new digital services. The Service has reverted to normal methods of evidence and are checking, reviewing and backdating income changes, ensuring the correct maintenance is being paid to the children.

The Service continued to ensure compliance where possible through Deductions from earnings orders and as a result, in the quarter ending March 2020, £28 million was collected via this method. Other substantial enforcement action relies on third parties, including Her Majesty’s courts, bailiffs and the banks, which were not in a position to support further enforcement action during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis. The Service is now working with these parties to re-establish enforcement activity, where necessary.