PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Child Maintenance Service: Standards (28 October 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure (a) the accuracy of Child Maintenance Service calculations and (b) that the process of correcting mistakes in those calculations is (i) faster and (ii) easier.

Asked by:
Jayne Kirkham (Labour)

In the year to June 2024 there were 138,000 new applications to the CMS, an increase of 10% from the year to June 2023.

To ensure calculations are accurate the department continues to build on its already proportionate and cost-effective controls, such as:

• use of verified income from HMRC and benefit systems as outlined in legislation and a principal part of service design.
• use of child benefit systems to verify qualifying child(ren).
• procedures and policy to request additional verification.
• a dedicated Financial Investigation Unit who addresses allegations of misrepresentation and fraud.
• a robust mandatory reconsideration (MR) and appeals process.
• a robust 3 Tier Quality Framework.

CMS are wholly committed to delivering the best possible service to all customers within our growing caseload.

Where a single accidental error relating to the maintenance calculation is made, a challenge can be raised by a parent or their representative within time, and corrections can be applied without the need for a review of the decision (MR).

The Department for Work and Pensions and CMS rigorously monitors accuracy as part of our service ambition to further reduce error and increase our accuracy levels. The National Audit Office set a target of monetary value errors under 1%. This standard is consistently met.

Answered by:
Andrew Western (Labour)
31 October 2024