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765617

	registered interest
	date	06/10/2017
	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, why the Child Maintenance Service allows non-resident parents £2,500 of unearned income that is not factored into payment plans; and whether he plans to review this policy.
	tabling member constituency	Motherwell and Wishaw
	tabling member printed	Marion Fellows
	uin	106137
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/10/2017 answer text <p>Calculation of a child maintenance liability is based on gross income information provided directly to the Child Maintenance Service by HMRC. <del class="ministerial">Individuals are required to declare unearned income not taxed at source which does not exceed £2500 a year to HMRC, which already enables HMRC to include it in the income information they provide.</del> Unearned income exceeding £2500 a year is dealt with by HMRC through tax self-assessment <del class="ministerial">and is picked up in a child maintenance calculation through an unearned income variation. We have no plans to review this.</del><ins class="ministerial">The treatment of unearned income for child maintenance purposes is aligned with this for administrative efficiency. We are inviting views on the future treatment of &quot;income&quot; within the recently published Compliance and Arrears Strategy consultation.</ins></p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 12/10/2017 13:56:00 question first ministerially corrected 01/02/2018 17:10:55 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse previous answer version 14051 answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage answering member 4008
	tabling member	4440 label Biography information for Marion Fellows

819805

	registered interest
	date	10/01/2018
	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 the average length of time is for her Department to close a case when a Child Maintenance Service order expires; and what targets are in place for such cases to be closed.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	121877
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/01/2018 answer text <p>We have interpreted the expiring of a Child Maintenance Service order to mean the ending of Child Maintenance liability on a Child Support Agency (CSA) case as part of our case closure process.</p><p> </p><p>The process to end the liabilities (stop accruing maintenance) in all Child Support Agency cases began in 2014. The Case closure process involves sending the customer 3 letters over the case closure journey to instigate, remind and confirm liability is ending, enabling the customer to make alternate arrangements over the period. .</p><p> </p><p>At end of liability, clients are told that their Child Support Agency child maintenance arrangement has ended. The Non Resident Parent will be told when to make a final maintenance payment and to keep paying any arrears. The Child Support Agency (CSA) will continue to collect and pay arrears payments that are made prior to the case fully closing - but regular maintenance collections and payments will stop after a 6 month fixed period.</p><p> </p><p>When liability has ended the case enters “arrears cleanse”. The purpose of this period (which may take up to a further 6 months) is to examine the debt balances on the case to address any anomalies and so calculate a “stable” arrears figure. This involves reviewing any suspended and deferred debt. It includes the write off of debt in circumstances covered by existing debt write off powers.</p><p> </p><p>A case can only close once all arrears have been cleared or collected. For those cases where the child maintenance liability ended on or after 1<sup>st</sup> April 2014 as part of this process the average length of time for the Department to close a case was 27 weeks, this is based on data up 31<sup>st</sup> September 2017. The department aims to end liability on all Child Support Agency cases by 31 December 2018.</p><p> </p><p>In terms of targets, the department have a clear timeline for ending liability for individual cases 6 months after selection but there time taken to actually close the case will be dependant on the arrears position and the amount of work outstanding.. Whilst there are no specific targets for the process of closing cases once liability has ended, for most cases this should be around 6 months, and the exact time will depend on case circumstances. This relates to Child Support Agency cases only, and only those cases that are subject to the case closure programme. We have no specific closure data for Child Maintenance Service (CMS) cases, and they are not part of the case closure programme.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 18/01/2018 14:00:10 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

823573

	registered interest
	date	16/01/2018
	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 her Department has made of the number of paying parents involved in pay arrangements though the child maintence service who are listed as self-employed or as company directors.
	tabling member constituency	Rutherglen and Hamilton West
	tabling member printed	Ged Killen
	uin	123037
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2018 answer text <p>The department does not hold data on the number of paying parents who are acting as company directors.</p><p> </p><p>The Child Maintenance Service is currently in the process of assuring employment data and therefore this will be available at a future date when it would be released in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 22/01/2018 15:28:39 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
	tabling member	4672 label Biography information for Ged Killen

824410

	registered interest
	date	17/01/2018
	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 her Department is taking to tackle miscalculations of child maintenance liabilities by paying parents who are (a) self-employed or (b)company directors.
	tabling member constituency	Rutherglen and Hamilton West
	tabling member printed	Ged Killen
	uin	123211
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2018 answer text <p>The Child Maintenance Service’s definition of income includes almost all sources of gross income reported to HMRC by company directors or self-employed parents. The specially trained Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) are able to look into cases where there is concern about a parent’s income. The FIU has been expanded since it was set up in 2014; and between July and September 2017 it opened 1100 complex earner investigations. We recently launched a consultation on our new Child Maintenance Compliance and Arrears strategy which proposes further improvements to the treatment of the income of complex earners, such as high value assets owned by a parent being used to create a notional income.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 22/01/2018 15:29:35 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
	tabling member	4672 label Biography information for Ged Killen

824525

	registered interest
	date	17/01/2018
	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, for what reasons arrears payable for child maintenance that require the Child Maintenance Service to arrange payments via the employer only attract a one off fee rather than an additional percentage charge of the arrear.
	tabling member constituency	Stirling
	tabling member printed	Stephen Kerr
	uin	123326
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2018 answer text <p>When the Child Maintenance Service arranges for maintenance payments to be taken directly from the parent’s earnings via the employer, this is done through a Deductions from Earnings Order. The Paying Parent is charged a one off £50 enforcement fee for the Deduction from Earnings Order, as well as on-going collection charges of 20% of the maintenance liability (including any arrears) for using the Collect and Pay service. Charges are designed to encourage compliance.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 22/01/2018 15:29:56 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
	tabling member	4604 label Biography information for Stephen Kerr

824411

	registered interest
	date	17/01/2018
	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, if the Government will issue new guidance to Financial Investigation Units in the Child Maintenance Service for dealing with miscalculations of child maintenance liabilities by paying parents who are self-employed or company directors.
	tabling member constituency	Rutherglen and Hamilton West
	tabling member printed	Ged Killen
	uin	123212
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/01/2018 answer text <p>Current guidance for all Child Maintenance Service caseworkers is to refer cases to the Financial Investigations Unit (FIU) should there be any credible, evidence based challenges to a child maintenance assessment which are unable to be resolved through our routine income verification processes.</p><p> </p><p>The guidance used by FIU Investigators is updated as required in regards to all areas for investigation including possible miscalculations of maintenance for clients who are deemed complex earners.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 23/01/2018 13:26:04 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
	tabling member	4672 label Biography information for Ged Killen

828715

	registered interest
	date	23/01/2018
	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, how many additional child maintenance payments were made after investigations by HMRC in each year since 2010.
	tabling member constituency	North Swindon
	tabling member printed	Justin Tomlinson
	uin	124363
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/01/2018 answer text <p>The information is not routinely recorded and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 29/01/2018 17:16:15 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
	tabling member	4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson

834330

	registered interest
	date	31/01/2018
	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, if she will remove the Child Maintenance Service fees for the parent with care in cases where a pay and collect arrangement is required due to non-payment by the non-resident parent.
	tabling member constituency	Easington
	tabling member printed	Grahame Morris
	uin	125950
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/02/2018 answer text <p>We undertook a 30 Month Review of charging, published August 2017, which did not indicate that charges are having an excessive impact on parents’ decisions when using the Service. We have no plans to change our charging structure, but will continue to monitor the impacts of the child maintenance reforms.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 05/02/2018 17:00:26 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
	tabling member	3973 label Biography information for Grahame Morris

834658

	registered interest
	date	01/02/2018
	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, how money has been accrued to the public purse the Government from (a) Child Maintenance collection charges and (b) Child Maintenance collection charges from victims of domestic abuse since the introduction of those charges.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	126106
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/02/2018 answer text <p>In the three full financial years (2014/15-2016/17) since the introduction of charging, £25.9M has been received by the Child Maintenance Service. £17.7M from paying parents and £3.4M from receiving parents. The remaining £4.8M is made up from application fees and enforcement charges. Information is not available on charges where domestic abuse has been declared.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 07/02/2018 15:06:39 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley

837527

	registered interest
	date	05/02/2018
	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 she is taking to ensure the provision of adequate training on the variations system for Child Maintenance Options staff to advise members of the public.
	tabling member constituency	Dunfermline and West Fife
	tabling member printed	Douglas Chapman
	uin	126646
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/02/2018 answer text <p>Child Maintenance Options provide impartial information to support parents in making the most appropriate maintenance arrangement for their circumstances.</p><p>Child Maintenance Options agents complete a comprehensive training programme and have supporting guidance available to ensure they provide complete and unbiased information to customers, including information about how a child maintenance calculation is worked out and what information is taken into account.</p><p>Child Maintenance Service caseworkers who take applications to the statutory scheme are trained on the detail of the variations system so, in cases where a declaration is made, the variation can be applied appropriately.</p><p>As part of the Compliance and Arrears Strategy the department is reviewing its approach to variations. Appropriate additional training and guidance will be considered as a result.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 08/02/2018 14:19:50 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
	tabling member	4402 label Biography information for Douglas Chapman