Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance service's enforcement methods.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a strong range of enforcement powers to address non-compliance, including deductions from earnings and bank accounts, the use of Enforcement Agents, disqualification from driving, passport disqualification, and committal to prison in the most serious cases. These are very effective; 7% of all maintenance arranged since the launch of the 2012 scheme remain to be collected through the ‘collect and pay’ service.

But the Government is not complacent and has plans for CMS reform. It has confirmed its intention to remove Direct Pay and move to a single, strengthened Collect and Pay service.

There are also plans to introduce Administrative Liability Orders. These will replace the current requirement for the CMS to apply to the court for a liability order. Introducing a simpler administrative process will enable the CMS to take faster action against those paying parents who actively avoid their responsibilities and will get money to children more quickly.

These changes combined will enable the CMS to monitor all payments, identify missed or partial payments more quickly, and take faster enforcement action.