Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the accessibility and affordability of requiring parents to seek repeated court orders for the Child Maintenance Service to recognise changes to child contact arrangements.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) does not require a court order in all cases. The job of the CMS is to determine what contact is actually taking place and ensure that is reflected in the maintenance calculation. Where shared care arrangements are disputed, the CMS will seek to collect evidence from parents to establish the actual level of care being given. Acceptable evidence can include a current court order but can also include; a formal written agreement such as one drawn up by a solicitor, or other official documentation such as reports from Social Services or the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. This approach ensures that decisions are based on clear and verifiable information so that maintenance calculations are fair, consistent, and reflect the care actually being provided.

In some circumstances, where for example there is a dispute over whether the terms of a current court order are being honoured, formal evidence such as a revised court order may be required, especially in the absence of other robust evidence around the level of shared care being provided in practice. Here, the requirement for robust evidence plays an important role in ensuring that CMS decisions are accurate and that both parents are treated fairly, thereby minimising the risk of further disputes.

That said, the CMS does not determine contact arrangements itself, as these matters are primarily for parents and, where they cannot agree, for the family courts.

Shared care remains an important consideration within the child maintenance system, and this is an area that the CMS will continue to keep under review.