Written questions by Heylings.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of reforming the Child Maintenance Service to (a) increase protections for the victims of domestic abuse and (b) to prevent the withholding or artificial reduction of child maintenance payments being used as a form of economic abuse.

A consultation on proposed reforms to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) was published by the previous Government on 8 May 2024. This included:removing Direct Pay and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster,exploring views on collection fees and the impact of proposals to reduce, but maintain, fees andexploring how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported. This follows the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Act receiving royal assent in July 2023. The consultation was extended by this Government at the end of July and ran until 30 September 2024. We are currently analysing the responses we have received, and the Government will publish a response in due course. CMS Domestic Abuse training has been updated with input from external stakeholders and wider DWP to ensure caseworkers recognise and respond safely and appropriately to customers who are experiencing domestic abuse or are survivors of domestic abuse. This package includes an understanding of abuse, including economic abuse, and, of course, given the context, covers post separation abuse.The CMS will use its strong enforcement powers to pursue those who willfully avoid their financial obligations to their children. Cases involving complex income can be investigated by the Financial Investigation Unit (FIU). This is a specialist team which can request information from financial institutions (such as banks, investment companies and mortgage companies) to check the accuracy of information the CMS is given.

What reforms to disability benefits she plans to introduce in 2025; when each reform will be implemented; and whether she plans to publish any further consultations on planned reforms.

This Government is committed to reforming the system of health and disability benefits so that it promotes and enables employment among as many people as possible. We are working to develop proposals for health and disability reform in the months ahead and will set them out in a Green Paper ahead of the Spring Statement. This will launch a public consultation on the proposals. This Government is committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of all that we do, so we will consult on these proposals, where appropriate, with disabled people and representative organisations.

What her planned timetable is for responding to the Gingerbread report entitled Fix the Child Maintenance Service, published on 25 November 2024.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to engage regularly with stakeholders as we consider CMS reform. We are currently considering the recommendations from the Gingerbread report ‘Fix the CMS’ alongside other potential changes we have been discussing with stakeholders.

What guidance her Department issues to Disability Living Allowance claimants during the wait for their claim to be assessed; and what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times.

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for Children is the only DLA product that has new claims. There are no longer new claims for DLA Adult, as customers over 16 are invited to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and customers over the state pensions age are invited to claim Attendance Allowance (AA), rather than the DLA 65+. At present, for Disability Living Allowance for Children, once a claim has been registered a system generated letter is sent to the customer to advise that the claim is being looked at with an approximate time frame, a progress acknowledgement letter may be sent at 7 weeks for new claims if the claim has not had a decision at that point. Special Rules End of Life claims are dealt with as a priority and the above does not apply as these are expected to be decided within 10 days. Telephony agents are also kept up to date for any telephony enquiries. In 2025 plans are in place to add information to an automated text once claims are registered. Work is also being undertaken to add a page to gov.uk In addition to this, new staff have been recruited and staff redeployed to help meet the increased number of claims and work is also underway to deliver improvements to the customer journey.

If she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the support provided by her Department in helping disabled people (a) find and (b) maintain employment.

As part of the get Britain working plan, more disabled people and those with health conditions will be supported to enter and stay in work, by devolving more power to local areas so they can shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer that suits the needs of the people they serve. Good quality work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. We want people to avoid poverty, and for this to happen we must ensure that disabled people and people with health conditions have the opportunity to work and save for as long as they wish and are able to. The DWP delivers a range of interventions to help disabled people and people with long-term health conditions to find and stay in work. We have already published several evaluations of the effectiveness of some of these programmes. These include the JOBS II evaluation, Employment Advisors in Improved Access to Psychological Therapies and the Health Led Trials. For future interventions, the DWP is committed to adhering to HMT and Government Social Research guidelines, which includes proportionate evaluation and assessment of the effectiveness of any support in finding and staying in work, alongside wellbeing outcomes. All planned and live evaluations and evaluation reports will be registered on an Evaluation Registry from early 2025. “Evaluation” refers to impact, process, and value for money evaluation studies conducted in line with the Magenta Book.