Child Support Agency (Hansard, 4 July 1994)

§ 18. Mr. Barnes
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the operation of the Child Support Agency.

§ Mr. Burt
The Child Support Agency has had a challenging first year and this is recognised in the report "The Child Support Agency: The First Two Years" which was placed in the Library today. Despite many difficulties, the agency achieved considerable successes in its first year. Over 850,000 cases were taken on and over 200,000 maintenance assessments were made. Nearly 60 per cent. of cases involved absent parents who were not paying maintenance. In 28,000 cases the agency successfully located absent parents for whom the parents with care of the children did not have an address—a success rate of 85 per cent.

§ Mr. Thomason
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the first year of the Child Support Agency's operations and its plans and targets for the second year.
50W

§ Mr. Lilley
The Child Support Agency has today published "The Child Support Agency: The First Two Years". This provides the annual report for the year 1993–94—"Our First Year", and the business plan for the year 1994–95—"The Year Ahead". The agency's national client satisfaction survey 1993 has also been published today. Copies of both those publications have been placed in the Library. The annual report contains details of the agency 1993–94 performance against the standards of service as set out in the agency's customer charter. In addition, all local caller areas will, as from today, display posters detailing this information. The posters will be updated quarterly.
The targets that I have set the Child Support Agency for 1994–95 are as follows: 50 per cent. of people with care of children making eligible applications to the Child Support Agency to have maintenance arranged. a score of 65 per cent. on an index of client satisfaction with the Agency's service, as determined by an independent national survey. annual benefit savings of £460 million. to manage the Agency's resources so as to deliver its Business Plan within a total budget of £184 million. by the end of March 1995, no more than 40 per cent. of outstanding maintenance applications to be over 13 weeks old, no more than 15 per cent. over 26 weeks old, and no more than 1 per cent. over 52 weeks old.
The agency is making a number of operational and procedural changes this year which should significantly improve performance. The new targets, which are higher than the agency's achievements last year, take this expected improvement into account.

§ Mr. Pawsey
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the total cost of information technology investment in the child support scheme; and what were the amounts of funding by(a) the Child Support Agency, (b) the Information Technology Services Agency and (c) his Department.

§ Mr. Burt
Some £52.3 million up to March 1994. All funding of information technology investment is met out of the DSS administration vote.

§ Mr. Pawsey
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what percentage availability has been achieved by the Child Support Agency computer system; and what penalty has been levied against(a) EDS and (b) ITSA.

§ Mr. Burt
Over the last six months, 93.5 per cent. availability has been achieved by the Child Support Agency computer system. No penalties have been imposed.

§ Mr. Pawsey
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what(a) additional and (b) re-working payments have been made to the information technology contractors EDS in connection with the Child Support Agency computer system.

§ Mr. Burt
A development contract is in place with EDS, the terms of which permit EDS to charge for any additional changes requested. Since April 1993, such changes have resulted from policy requirements and amendments to working practices. The charge for additional development work during the period April 1993 to March 1994 was £1.1 million. Contractual arrangements with EDS provide for resolution of faults which are EDS's responsibility within the fixed price for the contract and at no additional charge.
51W

§ Mr. Pawsey
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what has been the cost of the hardware upgrades which the Child Support Agency computer system's IBM mainframe computer has had to have.

§ Mr. Burt
The Child Support Agency computer system has had one hardware upgrade at a cost of £5.19 million.

§ Mr. Gunnell
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security under what circumstances the Child Support Agency opens files for maintenance payments in respect of children who are both living with, and maintained by, both of their parents.

§ Mr. Burt
The Child Support Agency has no role where children and their parents all live in the same household.
Where the parents live apart and the children spend on average at least two nights a week with each, the agency may arrange for the parent who provides the lesser amount of care to pay maintenance to the other parent.

§ Mr. Pawsey
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what expenditure has been incurred in implementing the programming application on the Child Support Agency computer system.

§ Mr. Burt
Some £13.5 million, including all expenditure for ITSA, EDS and CSA user design.

§ 24. Mr. Win Griffiths
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what representations he has received in the last month concerning the CSA.

§ Mr. Burt
In the month up to 31 May 2,204 written representations were received by the headquarters of the Department and the Child Support Agency from both hon. Members and members of the public covering a wide range of views.