Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there is a statutory basis for the Child Support Agency to write off debt; and whether that Agency can reinstate debts it has written off.

In 2012, powers were introduced which allowed the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to write off Child Support Agency (CSA) and CMS debt in specific scenarios where it would be unfair or inappropriate to enforce liability.

Further powers were then introduced in 2018 which allowed remaining cases on the CSA to be closed following the collection or write off, of historic arrears, as part of the closure of the scheme. The debt must meet certain criteria relating to the amounts owed and the effective date of the maintenance calculation to be considered for write off.

The CMS can reinstate debt that has been written off in very specific and exceptional cases, for example, if the debt was written off in error.