wrans/answers2025-06-10 conversation_6
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-06-10 conversation_6

Tom Morrison:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many mandatory reconsiderations of an initial child maintenance calculation have resulted in no change to the assessment in each of the last five years; and what the average time taken was for those child maintenance payments to be put in place. \p Andrew Western: A Mandatory Reconsideration is where a parent has asked the Child Maintenance Service to reconsider a decision. It is a process that must be completed before the right to appeal to an independent tribunal with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service.

A Mandatory Reconsideration can be requested during the lifetime of a case or when a new application is made, for Child Maintenance and the application is unsuccessful.

Where the Child Maintenance Service finds the original decision to be incorrect or if the parent has supplied more information the decision can change.

The full information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service and the latest statistics are currently available to December 2024. Table 9 of the latest National tables provides the total number of mandatory reconsideration requests received by the CMS and the outcomes occurring each quarter, from April 2015 to December 2024. Data from Table 9 for January 2020 to December 2024 is shown in the following table:

Mandatory Reconsiderations: the number of requests received by the Child Maintenance Service to reconsider a decision, and the outcomes occurring each quarter, Great Britain, January 2020 to December 2024

Quarter

Received [1]

Cleared: Decision Revised [2] [3]

Cleared: Decision Not Revised [2]

Cleared: Total Cleared  [2] [4]

Number Cleared Within 28 Days of Receipt [5]

Percentage Cleared Within 28 Days of Receipt (%) [6]

Jan to Mar 2020

12,000

3,200

4,400

9,400

7,800

83%

Apr to Jun 2020

6,200

3,000

3,200

7,500

3,000

40%

Jul to Sep 2020

9,900

2,500

3,300

7,500

5,600

74%

Oct to Dec 2020

11,700

2,700

4,100

9,300

5,200

56%

Jan to Mar 2021

15,700

4,200

5,500

12,900

6,800

53%

Apr to Jun 2021

16,200

5,000

6,400

14,500

9,000

62%

Jul to Sep 2021

17,100

5,500

8,100

17,700

11,900

68%

Oct to Dec 2021

17,600

5,700

7,300

16,700

13,000

78%

Jan to Mar 2022

19,300

5,400

7,300

16,600

12,600

76%

Apr to Jun 2022

14,700

4,300

7,300

14,200

9,600

68%

Jul to Sep 2022

14,600

3,700

7,500

13,800

9,900

71%

Oct to Dec 2022

14,500

4,700

7,900

15,500

11,300

73%

Jan to Mar 2023

16,300

4,300

7,200

14,300

11,800

82%

Apr to Jun 2023

21,900

4,000

7,200

14,400

11,100

77%

Jul to Sep 2023

13,900

4,000

7,300

14,500

11,200

78%

Oct to Dec 2023

13,800

3,700

6,000

12,400

10,000

80%

Jan to Mar 2024

17,200

4,000

7,100

14,100

11,100

78%

Apr to Jun 2024

17,800

4,300

8,500

16,000

11,900

74%

Jul to Sep 2024

21,800

5,700

11,400

20,700

16,400

79%

Oct to Dec 2024

21,800

6,200

11,900

21,800

18,100

83%

Source: Child Maintenance Service Management Information

Notes