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 effect of the decision not to transfer Child Support Agency assessments to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) on financial outcomes for CMS users.

My Department considered the effect of case closure on children and their parents through a public consultation: “Supporting separated families; securing children’s futures” in July 2012. Our response to the consultation was published in November 2013.

We have monitored the effects of case closure and the new statutory child maintenance scheme and published a research report on case closure in December 2016. We will continue to monitor the effects as the remaining cases are closed.