Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what sanctions her Department have put in place under the Child Maintenance Service for receiving parents who do not keep the service informed of changes in circumstance that result in a child being no longer eligible for maintenance.

Both paying and receiving parents have a responsibility to inform the Child Maintenance Service of any change in circumstances. There are no sanctions for receiving parents who do not report circumstances where a child is no longer eligible for maintenance. If either party reports changes that confirm a child cannot be treated as a child for the purpose of child maintenance liability, then the Service will update the maintenance calculation. This change can be retrospective, as the effective date of this decision is treated as the date the child ceased to qualify for child maintenance.