Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that child maintenance payments are being reviewed on a regular basis.

Child maintenance calculations are reviewed annually using income information from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), meaning they stay up to date, and the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) does not need to rely on clients to report changes in their circumstances. However, a parent can report a change of circumstances at any time, if the income information received is not representative of the individual’s current earnings. The CMS will consider re-assessing their current earnings, if found to be 25 per cent different from the figure received from HMRC.