Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that paying parents report their income (a) promptly and (b) accurately to the Child Maintenance Service.

As a principal part of the service design the Department uses data from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and its own benefits data to assess 91% of Paying Parents earned income and benefit status, which are key parts of the maintenance calculation.

Additionally, the Child Maintenance service allows both paying and receiving parents to request a change to the assessment if they believe that the paying parent’s income has changed by more than 25% compared to the most recent figures provided by HMRC. This can be done online, over the telephone or in writing. Customer communications highlight the obligations of parents to provide information and the consequences of failure to comply or misrepresentation.

Where a paying parent receives unearned income which can be legally considered in assessing child maintenance either parent can request a variation to the normal maintenance calculation. Cases involving suspected misrepresentation or fraudulent behaviour can be looked into by the Financial Investigation Unit (FIU). This is a specialist team which can request information from financial institutions to check the accuracy of information the CMS is given.