Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Department plans to publish a child maintenance arrears reduction strategy for the next five years.

This Government is committed to maximising the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), which plays a vital role in ensuring that children receive the financial support to which they are entitled. Only 7 per cent of the total maintenance due since the CMS commenced operations in 2012 remains outstanding through the Collect and Pay service.

Significant reforms to the CMS have already been announced setting out our intention to move to a single service where all payments will be collected and transferred on behalf of parents. This reform will enable the CMS to address non-compliance more swiftly and provide enhanced support to victims and survivors of domestic abuse.

The CMS have a strong range of enforcement powers and continually review how these can be strengthened to improve the CMS’s ability to deploy enforcement measures more widely and select the most appropriate action in each case.