Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost of running the Child Maintenance Service was in (a) 2017 and (b) 2019.
The cost of running the Child Maintenance Service is reported in financial years rather than calendar years, the costs for the four financial years that include calendar years 2017 and 2019 are as follows:
2016/17 - £275.11m (excluding income) or £260.52m net of income
2017/18 - £221.73m (excluding income) or £199.67m net of income
2018/19 - £189.00m (excluding income) or £153.88m net of income
2019/20 - £189.77m (excluding income) or £146.17m net of income
Increasing income over time is due to both increasing caseloads on the CMS 2012 scheme and improvements to case compliance.