Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the timescale for the cancellation of debts owed to the Child Maintenance Service.

In 2012, powers were introduced which allowed the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to write off historic Child Support Agency (CSA) and CMS debt in specific scenarios where it would be unfair or inappropriate to enforce liability. Examples of these scenarios include if the receiving parent tells us they no longer want us to collect the arrears, or the paying parent is deceased, and no further action can be taken to recover the arrears from the paying parent’s estate.

Further powers were then introduced in 2018, which allowed remaining CSA cases to be closed following the collection or write-off of historic arrears, as part of the closure of the scheme. This was a one-off exercise, applying only to CSA debt.

Writing off is not a quick or easy decision and involves exhausting other approaches to deal with the debt. Where receiving parents wanted the CMS to attempt to collect the CSA debt, the CMS made one last attempt to collect CSA arrears where this was cost effective and had a possibility of success. Both parents were able to make representations during the process and paying parents were given an opportunity to provide evidence to dispute the value of the outstanding debt. No payments of compensation are issued by the CMS where write off decisions are made.

The CMS’ priority is to collect money owed to children who will benefit today, thereby preventing the build-up of arrears on the CMS.