Children: Maintenance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Child Maintenance Service policies in preventing paying parents from avoiding payments.
Answered by Department for Work and Pensions
The Government keeps the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) under continuous review and considers its enforcement powers to be robust, while taking forward reforms to strengthen compliance further and prevent paying parents from avoiding their maintenance responsibilities. These powers have helped secure payment of the vast majority of debt, with only 7% of all maintenance arranged via the 2012 scheme remaining to be collected via the Collect and Pay service.
The CMS already has a strong range of enforcement powers to prevent parents who avoid paying their Child Maintenance. These powers include using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving licences or UK passports, deductions directly form earnings and bank accounts or even commitment to prison. The Government also plans to bring forward regulations to introduce Administrative Liability Orders, replacing the current court-based process and enabling the CMS to take enforcement action more quickly against parents who do not meet their responsibilities.
The Government has confirmed its intention to remove Direct Pay and move to a single, strengthened Collect and Pay service. This will enable the CMS to monitor all payments, identify missed or partial payments more quickly, and take faster enforcement action.
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