Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what timetable he has set for the closure of Child Support Agency cases which do not form part of the Agency's current live caseload.

The Department is prioritising the closure over the next three years of cases with an ongoing child maintenance liability, and taking steps to minimise disruption as far as possible for parents who wish the statutory service to continue collecting maintenance on their behalf. Plans for handling cases where there is no ongoing liability, but arrears are owed, are still under consideration. Where there is a link between one of these arrears only cases, and an application to the 2012 scheme, action will be taken to bring that arrears only case up-to-date, before moving it across to the Child Maintenance Service.