Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason her Department calculates maintenance payment under the Child Maintenance Service using the most up to date complete tax year from HMRC; and if she will make it her policy to use income from the most recent 12 months from HMRC.

Basing the assessment on HMRC data has enabled the Child Maintenance Service to significantly speed up the processing of new cases which can be key to securing regular payments. The information provided is the most recent tax year within the last six years for which they have the complete tax information.

Many people’s incomes do not change greatly from year to year and therefore historic income is considered close enough to a non-resident parent’s current circumstances. Maintenance liabilities are also assessed via an annual review, which acts as a safeguard to respond to any significant change in financial circumstances. A calculation may be based upon current income if earnings can be shown to be at least 25 per cent different to the historic income figure received from HMRC.