Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what financial assessment she has made of the effect of writing off child maintenance arrears on (a) her Department's budget and (b) families who are entitled to claim child maintenance; and how much money has been transferred from the legacy system and is in the process of being written off.

In December 2017 we published a public consultation document detailing the financial assessment of writing off child maintenance arrears owed to Government and arrears owed to parents. The consultation can be found through the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/667033/child-maintenance-compliance-arrears-consultation.pdf

New statistics will be published in June 2019 which will include arrears transferred from the legacy system or in the process of being written off. Information on the planned changes to the Child Support Agency Quarterly Statistical Summary to incorporate this information can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-support-agency-statistics-publication-strategy