Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria his Department uses for determining the likelihood that child maintenance arrears will be collected.

The department publishes an annual estimate of child maintenance arrears in the Client Funds Account that sets out the three categories of collectability.

1. Likely to be collected: Debt which meets criteria indicating that the Department has a good chance of collecting it. The criteria are:

• At least one payment made against the outstanding arrears in the six months prior to the reporting date.
• At least one payment made in excess of the scheduled amount

2. Potentially collectable: Debt which meets criteria indicating that the Department has a reasonable chance of collecting it. The criteria are:

• The existence of a payment schedule at any point during the six months prior to the reporting date, even though no payments were received in the period.
• For recent arrears, i.e. aged three months or less, the receipt of at least one payment against those arrears after the reporting date.
• Debt on cases where enforcement action such as deduction directly from the non-resident parent’s bank account, or forcing the sale of their property is likely to be successful.

3. Uncollectable: All remaining debt which does not meet the criteria for either of the other categories.