AQW 17935/22-27

Ms Kate Nicholl
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 11/11/2024
Answered On Date: 02/12/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities when the policy for Child Maintenance Service to only pursue missing payments if recipients of child maintenance use the pay and collect process was introduced.

Answer:

The Child Maintenance Service was introduced in 2012 to encourage parents to make their own arrangements where it is safe and appropriate to do so, with the statutory scheme as a fallback for those who could not do so. As part of the statutory scheme the Direct Pay and Collect and Pay Services were introduced.

For cases on Collect and Pay, the Child Maintenance Service can take enforcement action to re-establish compliance on missing payments.

Under the Direct Pay Service, the Child Maintenance Service is only responsible for calculating child maintenance payments with the non-resident parent making the maintenance payment directly to the parent with care.