• Accessibility
• Email alerts
• RSS feeds
• Contact us

Child Support Agency

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many Child Support Agency clients have applied to the Independent Case Examiner since she began work in April 1997; how many of these cases were accepted as under her jurisdiction; how many cases have been determined; and how many complaints have been upheld. [30123]

Mr. Keith Bradley: The Agency is committed to reducing the number of complaints about its handling of cases and improvements in customer service are a high priority.

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mrs. Faith Boardman. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Faith Boardman to Mr. Archy Kirkwood, dated 18 February 1998:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Independent Case Examiner for the Child Support Agency.

The Office of the Independent Case Examiner commenced work in April 1997.

Between 1 April 1997 and 31 January 1998, 853 customers of the Child Support Agency made applications to the Independent Case Examiner. Of these, 686 have been accepted with-in the Independent Case Examiners jurisdiction (from a live and assessed caseload of 724,540 at 31 January 1998).

In the same period the Independent Case Examiner has completed her investigation in 132 cases. Of these, the complaint has been fully upheld in 42 cases, partially upheld in 60 cases and not upheld in 7 cases. A further 23 complaints have been settled by mediation (with the complainant's agreement) and have not therefore been the subjects of full investigations by the Independent Case Examiner.

The Agency's Business Units adopt a case study approach with cases referred to the Independent Case Examiner whereby the Business Unit Manager and staff involved with the case identify lessons learnt, introduce improvements and good working practices and regularly liaise with the office of the Independent Case Examiner.

I am very conscious that there are still far too many justified complaints about the standards of basic customer contact and the service we provide, and we recognise that doing things right first time is the key to preventing complaints. It is an Agency priority to improve the way in which complaints are handled; we have revised our training for all staff who deal with complaints and have introduced a new Complaints Guide, which sets out our policy and procedures for swift, effective complaints handling. We are aware that as we further tackle our backlog of cases from the Agency's first two years, there is potential for the volume of complaints to rise in the short term.

I hope this is helpful.

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what proportion of CSA assessments are due to be paid via the CSA; and how many of these accounts relate to parents with care on income support and family credit. [30163]

Mr. Keith Bradley: One of our key aims for the Child Support Agency is to ensure that more absent parents pay the maintenance they owe. The regular payment of

19 Feb 1998 : Column: 861

maintenance is central to our strategy as recognition of fathers' continuing responsibilities to their children; to help lone mothers move off Income Support into work; and to get more money to children in low income working families.

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mrs. Faith Boardman. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Faith Boardman to Mr. Archy Kirkwood, dated 18 February 1998:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about Child Support Agency maintenance assessments.

Details on payment methods are available through a 5% scan of the Child Support Computer System undertaken by the DSS Analytical Services Division. At 30 November 1997, of the 616,300 full maintenance assessments recorded as the Agency's live and assessed caseload, the appropriate method of payment for the absent parent in 504,600 cases (82%) was payment via the Agency's collection service. These cases include absent parents who are in receipt of Income Support.

Of the 504,600 cases where the appropriate method of payment was via the Agency collection service 433,340 (86%) were in respect of parents with care in receipt of Income Support, Family Credit or Disability Working Allowance.

I hope this is helpful.

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the outcome of the research commissioned by her Department on customer satisfaction with the CSA; and when the customer satisfaction target will be re-introduced. [30166]

Mr. Keith Bradley: One of our key aims for the Child Support Agency is to ensure that more absent parents pay the maintenance they owe. The regular payment of maintenance is central to our strategy as recognition of fathers' continuing responsibilities to their children; to help lone mothers move off income support into work; and to get more money to children in low income working families.

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mrs. Faith Boardman. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Faith Boardman to Mr. Archy Kirkwood, dated 18 February 1998:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about research on customer satisfaction with the Child Support Agency.

On Departmental advice and in line with other DSS Agencies, the Child Support Agency re-focused its customer research away from large-scale, national surveys of overall satisfaction to more in-depth customer research.

In-depth research identifies specific, priority improvements required by the customer, enables the Agency to target its efforts and resources to greater effect and therefore provides greater value for money. As the Agency's objective is to provide the service customers need, it will continue with in-depth customer research. It has no plans to re-introduce the national, general survey that is needed to support an overall customer satisfaction target.

The full report of the independent in-depth customer research commissioned by the Agency in December 1996, will be published in early spring as part of the DSS Research Series.

The research shows that customers have five priority improvements:

quicker completion of assessments

19 Feb 1998 : Column: 862

absent parents targeted equally to ensure more regular and reliable payments

better, more customer-friendly information on the child support process and assessment

correspondence and complaints dealt with quicker

easier and more convenient telephone access with a more 'one-stop' service.

The Agency is already working towards these by dealing with more child support applications, collecting more money and by putting more resources into the telephone service and reviewing key Agency literature. Further improvements are included in the Agency's plans for the next four years to achieve a step change in the customer service we provide. These include the setting up of local stakeholder groups in each of the Agency's 6 Business Units (a process which we have started) and continuing to work closely with our established National Stakeholder Group which has representatives from key customer groups.

I hope this is helpful.

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security in how many Child Support Agency cases each quarter (i) since April 1993 an alleged absent parent has disputed paternity of a qualifying child, (ii) the absent parent subsequently admitted to paternity without resorting to court action or DNA testing, (iii) since May 1995 paternity has been established or disproved by a discounted DNA test, (iv) since September 1995 paternity has been established or disproved by a CSA-funded DNA test and (v) paternity remains unresolved. [30164]

Mr. Keith Bradley: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mrs. Faith Boardman. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Mrs. Faith Boardman to Mr. Archy Kirkwood, dated 18 February 1998:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security concerning Child Support Agency paternity cases.

Details of the cases where an alleged absent parent has disputed the paternity of a qualifying child are shown in table 1 below.

Separate information on the number of cases where the absent parent admits paternity prior to any court action or DNA testing has only been collected in the current financial year, and this is shown in table 2 below.

The result of DNA paternity testing is virtually conclusive as the chance that two people have the same pattern is extremely low. A detailed breakdown of DNA tests in 1995/96 is not available, but a total of 1,377 cases were referred for discounted DNA testing between July 1995 and March 1996. Figures for 1996/97 and 1997/98 are shown in table 3 below. In 1996/97, paternity was established in 89% of cases referred for DNA testing. In the current year, to the end of January, the figure is 87%. This represents the overall percentage in establishing paternity; a breakdown into each type is not available. Once paternity has been established the Agency will pursue any arrears of maintenance that have accrued.

At the end of January 1998, the Agency had 9,141 paternity cases referred for DNA testing awaiting processing, and a further 626 where action had been suspended. Thus, there were 9,767 cases where the question of paternity remained unresolved.

I hope this is helpful.

Table 1: Cases of disputed paternity received by the Agency since inception

	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Total
1993-94	160	756	995	995	2,906
1994-95	2,434	2,589	2,276	2,798	10,097
1995-96	6,883	5,910	4,734	5,122	22,649
1996-97	4,251	4,490	4,382	4,884	18,007
1997-98	5,451	5,082	5,589	n/a	16,122

19 Feb 1998 : Column: 863

Table 2: Cases where the absent parent admitted paternity prior to any court action or DNA testing

	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Total
1997-98	399	426	444	n/a	1,269

Table 3: Cases referred for discounted DNA testing

	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Total
1996-97
CSA paid court referral	541	412	373	318	1,644
CSA paid	645	694	796	1,098	3,233
Alleged absent parent paid	191	141	120	91	543
1997-98
CSA paid court referral	343	442	488	n/a	1,273
CSA paid	1,098	1,187	1,364	n/a	3,649
Alleged absent parent paid	84	90	96	n/a	270

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what have been the total arrears attributable to child support maintenance assessments, excluding category A interim maintenance assessments, at each quarter since November 1995. [30121]

Mr. Keith Bradley: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mrs. Faith Boardman. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Faith Boardman to Mr. Archy Kirkwood, dated 18 February 1998:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about uncollected maintenance assessed by the Child Support Agency.

The Agency's Financial Management System was enhanced from April 1997 to provide more detailed information on category A interim maintenance assessments and other assessments--prior to April 1997 this information is not available. The cumulative amount of arrears outstanding, excluding category A interim maintenance assessments, as at each quarter end to date during 1997/8 and the position at 31 January 1998 are shown in the table attached.

Of the £652,870,713 which is attributable to maintenance assessments excluding Category A interim maintenance assessments, approximately £309 million is the subject of agreements for repayment by instalments, which are closely monitored by the Agency. this leaves approximately £344 million of full maintenance assessment debt to be pursued.

I hope this is helpful.

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security for each year since the CSA began operation, how much of the total child support maintenance paid by absent parents has been (a) retained by the Secretary of State in lieu of benefits and (b) if paid to the person with care, has reduced her state benefit. [30168]

19 Feb 1998 : Column: 864

Mr. Keith Bradley: Regular payments of maintenance can transform the lives of lone mothers and their children, providing a stable income that can help them off Income Support and into work.

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mrs. Faith Boardman. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Faith Boardman to Mr. Archy Kirkwood, dated 18 February 1998:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security concerning the effect of child support maintenance on benefits.

Where maintenance is paid through the Agency collection service and the full Income Support payment continues, money is retained by the Secretary of State to offset the benefit payment. The figures since Agency inception are shown at table 1.

Where maintenance is paid direct by the absent parent to the parent with care, income support payments are reduced where appropriate, and count towards the benefit savings recorded by the Agency. These savings are known as Net IS Reducers, and include those savings identified from arrangements made before the Agency was launched, as well as from maintenance arranged by the Agency. Details are given in table 2, together with the amounts of maintenance arranged for direct payment by the Agency. (A direct pay figure for the first year of operation is not available.)

It is also likely that in some direct pay cases there will be reductions in Family Credit/Disability Working Allowance; these benefit savings are calculated from a computer scan which does not differentiate between direct pay and collection service cases. It is not therefore possible to attribute a figure for reduced FamC/DWA to direct pay. The overall FamC/DWA benefit savings are given in table 3.

I hope this is helpful.

• A-Z index
• Glossary
• Contact us
• Freedom of Information
• Jobs
• Using this website
• Copyright