Child Maintenance Service: Standards
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government’s response to the consultation entitled Child Maintenance: Improving the Collection and Transfer of Payments, published on 23 June 2025, what steps she plans to take to ensure that forms of income not disclosed by paying parents are captured outside the proposed HMRC data-sharing pathways for automatic child maintenance calculations.
Answered by Andrew Western
Information about the paying parent's gross income is taken directly from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for the latest tax year available. This allows calculations to be made quickly and accurately. Any income subject to income tax including bonuses and overtime received by an employed paying parent, is included within their gross weekly income when calculating a child maintenance liability.
The Government has been conducting a review of the child maintenance calculation to make sure it is fit for purpose and reflects today’s social trends. The review will also consider the treatment of unearned income and assets within the automatic calculation. A consultation on the calculation will be published before the end of this year.
Unearned income and assets can still be captured through the current variation process up until changes are introduced.
Cases involving complex income can be investigated by the Financial Investigation Unit. This is a specialist team which can request information from financial institutions (such as banks, investment companies and mortgage companies) to check the accuracy of information that the CMS is given. If any discrepancies are found, then they can implement a correct maintenance liability that is supported by CMS legislation.
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