Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether there has been an increase in the annual number of reported errors made by the Child Maintenance Service since July 2024.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) operates within the wider DWP Quality Strategy designed to prevent, detect, and correct errors at the earliest opportunity. Where payments have been made in error, the CMS has processes to refund overpayments to the paying parent and, where appropriate, to seek recovery from the receiving parent. Decisions on reimbursement are made on a case-by-case basis and the welfare of all children affected in any given case will be considered as part of making this decision.

In addition, the Department’s approach to accuracy and error is subject to independent scrutiny, including oversight by the National Audit Office, providing further assurance that robust controls are in place and that any issues are identified and acted upon promptly.

The Department remains committed to improving its systems and processes to reduce the likelihood of error, ensure payments are correct, and take swift action to resolve issues where they occur.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) measures assessment accuracy by comparing the total weekly monetary value of correct and incorrect maintenance calculations to produce an overall percentage of correctly assessed cases. For 2024/25, CMS Monetary Value Error (MVE) accuracy was 99.5%, unchanged from 2023/24, where accuracy was also 99.5%. This indicates that the overall level of accuracy in maintenance assessments has remained stable over this period.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) Client Fund Accounts are due to be published in December 2026, which will include the assessment accuracy for 2025/26.