wrans/answers2025-05-22 conversation_70
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-22)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-05-22 conversation_70

Nick Timothy:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service in reaching targets set under its service level standards in each year since 2020. \p Andrew Western: The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has four official Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), each with a standard measure for 1) assessment accuracy, 2) application clearances, 3) change of circumstances clearances and 4) Collect and Pay compliance.

Information on the accuracy of CMS assessments, which has a standard level of >99%, is published in the annual CMS Client Funds Account, and since 2020 has shown a consistent level of 99.4%, increasing for the latest year available (2023/24) to 99.5% .

The published quarterly CMS statistics provide information on application clearances, change of circumstances clearances and Collect and Pay compliance, with the latest data available for quarter ending December 2024, and these are shown in the table below.

Quarterly Child Maintenance Service Key Performance Indicators for Applications, Change of Circumstances and Collect & Pay Compliance, April 2020 to December 2024

Applications - cleared within 12 weeks Standard 90%

Change of Circumstances - cleared within 28 days Standard 80%

Collect and Pay compliance - paying parent paid some maintenance Standard 67%

Apr - Jun 20

80%

87%

74%

Jul - Sep 20

95%

83%

72%

Oct – Dec 20

94%

78%

72%

Jan - Mar 21

91%

80%

72%

Apr - Jun 21

89%

78%

74%

Jul - Sep 21

90%

75%

72%

Oct – Dec 21

87%

76%

68%

Jan - Mar 22

87%

84%

63%

Apr - Jun 22

85%

79%

64%

Jul - Sep 22

89%

73%

64%

Oct – Dec 22

90%

77%

65%

Jan - Mar 23

89%

78%

65%

Apr - Jun 23

87%

77%

67%

Jul - Sep 23

87%

72%

69%

Oct – Dec 23

87%

74%

68%

Jan - Mar 24

87%

76%

69%

Apr - Jun 24

85%

77%

69%

Jul - Sep 24

90%

79%

68%

Oct – Dec 24

[x]

[x]

68%

Source: CMS statistics, Stat-Xplore

Notes:

Since 2020, as part of the DWP Service Modernisation Programme, the CMS has been undergoing extensive improvements to increase the quality and range of online services available to separated parents. This program has transformed how customers can interact with CMS, providing them with the choice to make contact through digital routes while ensuring that assistance is available for those who need additional support and non-digital customers via the telephone service. These improvements have allowed case workers to focus more on actioning their work. The wide-reaching programme aims to continue to reform and modernise CMS services with increased effectiveness and efficiency.

Additionally, the CMS has amended its service to allow Direct Pay arrangements to quickly move to Collect and Pay when the Paying Parent is not paying or when Direct Pay is no longer appropriate. 14,000 arrangements moved from Direct Pay to Collect and Pay in the quarter ending December 2024 meaning CMS are collecting money for children quicker.

In the quarter ending December 2024, over 1 million children were covered by CMS arrangements, an increase of 61,000 from the quarter ending December 2023.