Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing automatic late-payment interest on arrears of child maintenance owed through the Child Maintenance Service.

Under the statutory child maintenance scheme, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) does not have the legal power to charge interest on arrears. This applies to both arrears accrued under the Child Support Agency and the CMS. Our focus is on recovering arrears as quickly as possible, and then maintaining compliance.

The Child Maintenance Service always encourages paying parents to pay their maintenance on time, to avoid accrual of arrears. Where a paying parent fails to pay on time or in full, the CMS aims to take immediate action to recover the debt and re-establish compliance.

Parents who do not remain compliant will be moved to the Collect and Pay service, where they are required to pay a 20% collection fee on top of their child maintenance liability. In addition, the CMS has a broad range of enforcement powers, including deductions from earnings and bank accounts, the use of enforcement agents, charging orders, and applications for driving licence or passport disqualification.

The Government's current focus is on strengthening and streamlining these enforcement measures to improve compliance and accelerate the recovery of maintenance owed to children.