Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times the Child Maintenance Service allowed a parent paying child maintenance with a (a) payment history of less than six months and (b) record of missed payments or arrears to move from a Collect and Pay DEO to Direct Debit in each of the last five years.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) will do everything it can to address the nonpayment of child maintenance. Where payments have defaulted, we use our enforcement powers fairly and quickly to get cases back into payment.

The Department publishes quarterly Child Maintenance Service (CMS) statistics, with the latest statistics available to the end of December 2024 here. Table 4 contains information on the amount of child maintenance that Paying parents have paid, and are expected to pay, each quarter.

Information on the method of payments used by Paying Parents and Collect and Pay compliance can be found on Stat Xplore

The full information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.