Children: Maintenance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) paying and (b) receiving parents use the Child Maintenance Service Collect and Pay service; and how many (i) paying and (ii) receiving parents will move onto that service as a result of proposed changes.
Answered by Andrew Western
As of the end of September 2025, there were 317,100 Receiving Parents and 303,800 Paying Parents using the Collect & Pay service.
It is proposed to reform the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) when Parliamentary time allows to create one streamlined service where the CMS would collect and transfer all maintenance payments.
The precise number of paying and receiving parents who would move into a new streamlined service would depend on a number of factors including the size caseload at the time of implementing the proposed reforms and the choices made by customers.
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