Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has plans to conduct an equality impact assessment in relation to the child maintenance service arrears strategy, and if she will make a statement.

DWP considered the impact of the compliance and arrears strategy on those with the relevant protected characteristics in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).

We determined that there would be no direct discrimination from this strategy across the eight protected characteristics as none of the characteristics are a factor in how the regulations are applied.

Some groups may be indirectly affected more than others as a result of the caseload demographic.