Child Benefit provides support to all parents of adopted children where those parents are responsible for the adopted children. A person is treated as being responsible for a child, whether that child is adopted or not adopted, where:

• the child living is with them;

• they are contributing to the cost of providing for the child at a weekly rate not less than the weekly rate of Child Benefit payable in respect of that child for that week.

NHS England’s inpatient service specifications already contain specific requirements on family and carer involvement. Paragraph 2.19 of the Tier 4 Child Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) general adolescent-service specification states that family and carer involvement should include, if appropriate:

- Rights to visits and phone calls with family/carers;

- Involvement with family/carers in providing a history; and

- Involvement of family/carers in appropriate treatment and planning for discharge.

The CAMHS Clinical Reference Group is developing a toolkit for parents and carers. This will provide guidance and good practise on involving parents or carers when a young person is admitted to an inpatient unit. Young Minds and the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Quality Network for Inpatient CAMHS are developing this in partnership. Reference to the toolkit and the requirement to facilitate access, will be included in all service specifications and, therefore, in provider contracts.

Child Maintenance remains a power that is reserved at Westminster and no formal assessment has been made of the potential merits of devolving the calculation of liabilities to Scotland. It is important that the rules used to calculate a child maintenance liability are applied consistently to avoid the complexities for clients that would result from applying different rules to different parts of the UK.

To make an initial maintenance assessment, regulations provide that HM Revenue & Customs share income information for the most recent complete tax year they hold within the previous six years. This process is repeated annually to ensure the assessment is based on the most recent data HMRC hold and in line with a paying parent’s circumstances.

More recent income data can be used in specific circumstances where a paying parent’s income has changed in a way that breaks the 25% tolerance, requiring their calculation to move from historic to current income.

At the end of June 2019, there were 260 Paying Parents with unpaid maintenance in the Dunfermline and West Fife constituency. The total amount of unpaid maintenance associated with these Paying Parents was £386,000.

Please note the following points:

• A Paying Parent may be paying towards multiple child maintenance arrangements;
• These figures do not consider unpaid child maintenance that was arranged by the Child Support Agency;
• Paying Parents with any amount of unpaid maintenance which was arranged by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) are considered as having arrears;
• The count of Paying Parents has been rounded to the nearest 10, the value has been rounded to the nearest £1,000.

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

An assessment of the decision to use gross income to calculate child maintenance liabilities was carried out when we developed the 2012 statutory scheme.

It is important that the rules used to calculate a child maintenance liability are applied consistently to avoid the complexities for clients that would result from applying different rules to different parts of the UK. The maintenance calculation is designed to be affordable for the non-resident parent, while still ensuring that they contribute a significant proportion of their income to support children they no longer live with.

There is no evidence to suggest that parents are disproportionately affected by the decision to use gross income, because of where they reside in the UK.

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

The legislative framework which governs family law proceedings about a child’s upbringing is gender neutral and focused on the welfare of the child involved.

The court is legally required to presume that the involvement of a parent in the life of the child will further that child’s welfare, unless there is evidence to the contrary. The nature of any parental involvement will be determined by the court based on all the available evidence.

At the end of March 2019, the 100 non-resident parents with the largest amount of unpaid child maintenance arranged by the Child Maintenance Service collectively owed £3.5m, rounded to the nearest £0.1m.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The government supports women and parents to return to work, including through: spending almost £6 billion on childcare support in 2019/20 – more than ever before, providing the right to request flexible working and a system of shared parental leave, investing in opportunities and support for people returning to work after time out for caring and having an ambition to increase female entrepreneurship by half by 2030.

The female employment rate is at a record high of 72.1% and 1.9m more women are in work since 2010. The employment rate for parents is 83.2%, also a record high.

Ahead of closure Child Support Agency send customers a series of letters advising about their case closing and what they can do should they want child maintenance payments to continue. This advice includes making an advance application to the Child Maintenance Service, t o ensure there are no breaks in child maintenance.

When the Child Support Agency case is closed, we write to non-resident parent during the stage where we are confirming the arrears position, to remind them of the amount we have worked out they owe. We advise them to contact us if they have any other relevant information which would impact this. A letter is then sent to receiving parent advising we have confirmed their balance of child maintenance. Where child maintenance is owed, we ask if the balance is correct and if they want their arrears written off or managed by Child Maintenance Service. Parents are provided with contact details to discuss their case, at all points.

In cases where the arrears are moved to Child Maintenance Service, a letter is sent to both parties confirming their Child Support Agency case is fully closed. We also advise the unpaid child maintenance is now being managed by Child Maintenance Service. This provides the parent with the new telephone number they will need if they wish to contact Child Maintenance Service.

Where there is a new Child Maintenance Service case, which was previously a Child Support Agency case, the calculation can change. This is because it is a fresh start under the new service, with new rules and data.

At the outset of a Child Maintenance Service case, we issue an indicative calculation letter to the parents. This explains the new calculation, including the information used in the calculation. This provides opportunity for the non-resident parent to provide any further information that would impact the calculation. Following this we issue an initial calculation letter which confirms the calculation and the details used.

Parents are advised they have the opportunity, throughout the application process and the life of the case as well as at annual review stage, to challenge the information used and request change.

The number of families eligible for Tax-free childcare who have qualifying childcare costs in 2019/20 in England, Scotland and Wales can be found in the table below.

The number of families eligible for Tax-free childcare who have qualifying childcare costs in 2019/20 in England, Scotland and Wales can be found in the table below.

The number of families eligible for Tax-free childcare who have qualifying childcare costs in 2019/20 in England, Scotland and Wales can be found in the table below.

This Government is committed to supporting families and we will be spending almost £6 billion in 2019/20 on childcare support – more than ever before.

There is a range of financial support with the cost of childcare available to parents with children over the age of 11, including:

• Support with 20% of childcare costs for disabled children up to the age of 16 under Tax-Free Childcare.

• Support of up to 85% of childcare costs under Universal Credit, and up to 70% of costs under Tax Credits, for children up to the age of 16 and 15 respectively.

• Support of up to 85% of childcare costs for children under 15 whose parents are full time Higher Education students under the Childcare Grant in England.

We estimate that there are 1.3 million families with qualifying childcare that are eligible for Tax-free Childcare in the UK in 2019/20. This estimate has been revised from the 1.5 provided previously following updates to the survey data and methodological improvements.

Current forecasts for the next five years can be seen in the table below.