Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps are being taken to collect the almost £4 billion of child maintenance arrears debt currently owed.

We currently have a range of strong collection and enforcement powers to pursue Child Maintenance arrears. Our main focus is to collect money owed to children who will benefit today. We are currently reviewing our approach to arrears built up under the 1993 and 2003 schemes and expect to publish our new arrears strategy later this year.