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 introducing a minimum child maintenance payment for all paying parents on the Child Maintenance Service regardless of income.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) believes that all parents have an obligation to support their children regardless of their financial situation. Concurrently, the CMS believes it is important that child maintenance liabilities remain affordable and reflect a paying parent's ability to pay.

The CMS calculates maintenance using the paying parent's gross weekly income up to £3,000, ensuring contributions are fair and lower earners are protected through a £7 flat rate payment for most paying parents on lower incomes and for many of those in receipt of prescribed benefits, while a nil rate may apply in limited circumstances; the main categories of nil assessed parents are:

• Where a parent declares nil income in respect of their gross income and this is confirmed by HMRC;
• Where the parent is a prisoner;
• Where the parent is on the flat rate of maintenance but is providing some shared care.

In the case of prisoners and some other parents who declare nil income, if they have significant assets or earnings from sources that are not part of the main child maintenance calculation, these can be considered via a variation.

Recently, the Department reviewed the child maintenance calculation to ensure it strikes the right balance between both parents and supports compliance, helping to secure more maintenance for children. Following the review, we plan to reduce the income tolerance from 25% to 15%, meaning changes in a paying parent's income will be reflected more quickly and maintenance assessments will remain fairer for both parents.

We think the current system strikes the right balance between requiring parents to support their children where they can, while taking account of circumstances that make this very difficult or unfair. For these reasons, we do not believe it would be in the interests of children or taxpayers to consider the introduction of a minimum child maintenance payment for all paying parents, as maintenance liabilities should continue to reflect a paying parent’s financial circumstances and ability to pay.