Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the merits of introducing a statutory definition of day-to-day care for the purpose of determining whether there is a requirement for either parent to pay child maintenance when they have equal shared overnight care.

The Service’s definition of a day-to-day care for the purpose of establishing the receiving parent is broadly aligned with that of Child Benefit, where an overall care test is used to determine entitlement. Entitlement to receive Child Benefit is used as an indicator at the application stage. There are currently no plans to change the process of establishing maintenance liability.