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1697418

registered interest
date	20/03/2024
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Children: Maintenance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce call waiting times to the child maintenance service; and whether he has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of call handling times by that service.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	19632
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2024 answer text <p>As part of its Modernisation Programme, CMS continues to improve how it communicates with customers and how customers access its service. When a customer first applies for CMS they are enrolled on the online service which provides them the ability to update their information and request changes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The majority of our customers make use of these online services to effectively meet their needs every day, though we are actively engaged in improving the service further and increasing customer take up.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise some customers need alternative methods to contact us or choose to call us, and on occasion call wait times on our inbound phone lines can be longer than we would like. Speed to answer is continually reviewed throughout the working day and operational resource is regularly reviewed and flexed to minimise excessive wait times.</p><p> </p><p>Over the coming year we will increase customer education on what can be raised and progressed using our online services and encourage more customers to make use of this as the primary channel for their CMS enquiries. This will help protect our inbound phones lines for our customers that need to access our service in this way and reduce the wait time they experience.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 25/03/2024 16:48:16 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1460079

registered interest
date	25/04/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Children: Maintenance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of enabling data sharing between the Child Maintenance Service and HMRC to help ensure accurate income assessments of non-resident parents.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	158992
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2022 answer text <p>The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) already uses data received directly from HMRC to ensure child maintenance liabilities are based on accurate income information. The CMS can also access a wide range of income information, including income from property, savings, and investments (including dividends) and other miscellaneous income.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 28/04/2022 09:15:32 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1258505

registered interest
date	04/12/2020
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Children: Maintenance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the response timeframe for Child Maintenance Service complaints.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	125264
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2020 answer text <p>Complaints received about the Child Maintenance Service are handled in line with the overall Departmental complaints process published on Gov.uk. We aim to contact customers within 15 working days to clear the complaint or agree how to investigate it if it will take longer.</p><p> </p><p>As part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to make changes to our complaints model to allow staff to be deployed to support processing claims and payments. From 9 July 2020, DWP now triage complaints giving priority to vulnerable customers who may be at risk, and those with benefit payment issues.</p><p> </p><p>We continue to look into all complaints as quickly as we can and, as part of the triage process used to determine lower priority, we write to those customers explaining there may be a delay in answering their complaint.</p><p> </p><p>We plan to review the effectiveness of the approach we have taken throughout the pandemic as part of an ongoing review into complaints handling.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 09/12/2020 13:11:42 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1239247

registered interest
date	30/09/2020
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Children: Maintenance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the Child Maintenance Service debt that has been written-off in the last 12 months where the paying parent has an ongoing maintenance liability.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	97640
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/10/2020 answer text <p>No Child Maintenance Service (CMS) debt has been written off. The Department is offering one last attempt to collect historic Child Support Agency (CSA) debt, where it is cost effective to do so and there is a reasonable chance of collection. Where this is not possible, the debt will be written off.</p><p>There are no longer any CSA cases with ongoing maintenance.</p><p> </p><p>Our main focus is to collect money owed to children who will benefit today, thereby preventing the build-up of arrears under the CMS.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 09/10/2020 14:03:31 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1230675

registered interest
date	02/09/2020
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Children: Maintenance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the level of child maintenance arrears built up by paying parents during the period in which the Child Maintenance Service has not been taking new enforcement action as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	84290
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/09/2020 answer text <p>Where payments have been missed we have asked parents to report the changes via the self-service portal. In order to ensure that receiving parents do not lose out in the long run, the Child Maintenance Service is updating cases with notified changes. Where payments have been missed the Service is taking action to re-establish compliance and collect any unpaid amounts that may have accrued.</p><p> </p><p>Those found to be abusing the system are subject to the full extent of our enforcement powers and the Child Maintenance Service will pursue these, where appropriate.</p><p> </p><p>The vast majority of CMS enforcement powers involve third parties, including Her Majesty’s courts, enforcement agents and financial institutions. The COVID-19 crisis meant that these third parties had to pause business. The CMS is now beginning to reinstate a full service and remains committed to working with these key partners to establish how best to restart enforcement activity.</p><p> </p><p>The total amount of Child Maintenance arranged via the Collect and Pay service, and the amount of this that has not been paid, are published quarterly. The latest published figures for Child Maintenance Service are up the end of March 2020 and can be found in National Table 10 at the link below.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-maintenance-service-statistics-data-to-march-2020-experimental" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-maintenance-service-statistics-data-to-march-2020-experimental</a></p><p> </p><p>Statistics containing data to June 2020 will not be available until the next publication, due on 30 September 2020.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 07/09/2020 16:45:44 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1224532

registered interest
date	14/07/2020
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Children: Maintenance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what amount of child maintenance arrears are owed in the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	73896
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/07/2020 answer text <p>The total amount of arrears for Child Maintenance Service (CMS) in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency in March 2020 is £588,000.</p><p> </p><p>Source: Child Maintenance Group administrative data</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 20/07/2020 17:06:57 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1205643

registered interest
date	19/06/2020
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Children: Maintenance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of guaranteeing a minimum child maintenance payment during the covid-19 outbreak.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	61732
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2020 answer text <p>There is no plan for any such assessment, the purpose of the Child Maintenance Service is to facilitate the payment of child maintenance between separated parents.</p><p> </p><p>No one should use the pandemic as an excuse to avoid their child maintenance payments. Where paying parents experience a change in income, we can review their case and check if the amount paid should change. If it does not, they should continue to make payments.</p><p>We know the majority of parents take their responsibilities extremely seriously and will do what is needed to ensure their children are supported.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 24/06/2020 16:51:36 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry