HC Deb 18 January 1996 vol 269 cc718-21W
Ms Lynne

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many employees have been dismissed from each Child Support Agency centre since its creation. [8119]

Mr. Andrew Mitchell

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Ann Chant to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 16 January 1996: I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about staff dismissed from Child Support Agency Centres. Staff can be dismissed for a variety of reasons ranging from failure to meet the required performance standards during probation, through inefficiency and up to misconduct. The figures for staff dismissed in each Child Support Agency Centre (CSAC) since its creation in April 1993 are as follows:

CSAC Number of dismissals
Plymouth 16
Hastings 9
Birkenhead 5
Dudley 23
Falkirk 23

The figures do not include any information on staff dismissed within the Belfast CSAC. This is because staffing issues at this CSAC are the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Child Support Agency.I hope this is helpful.
Ms Lynne

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the effect on maintenance collected to be set against public funds of taking on the Child Support Agency cases deferred in December 1994. [8140]

Mr. Mitchell

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Ann Chant to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 16 January 1996: I am replying to your recent Parliamentary Question about the effect on maintenance collected to be set against public funds of taking on the Child Support Agency cases deferred in December 1994. As you are aware at that time the Agency deferred taking on an estimated 340,000 cases. The Secretary of State set the Agency a milestone target to commence the take on of these cases by the end of 1995. We started taking on the remaining cases in November last year, but in practice had already started to deal with many of them where the parent with care had asked us to do so.

Special payments made (up until 30 November 1995)
1993–94 April-March One-off ex-gratia payments 1994–95 April-March One-off ex-gratia payments 1995–96 April-March One-off ex-gratia payments Continuing ex-gratia payments Total ex-gratia payments
Number of payments Total amount paid £ Number of payments Total amount paid £ Number of payments Total amount paid £ Number of payments Total amount paid £ Total number Total cost £
Non jurisdiction — — — — 1 472.80 — — 1 472.80
Delay in issue of MAF — — 1 105.91 1 939.50 — — 2 1,045.41
Delay in issue of MEF — — 1 172.39 26 18,259.99 — — 27 18,432.38
Delay in calculating MA — — 1 36.00 1 408.23 — — 2 444.23
Delay in issue of DEO — — — — 1 369.33 — — 1 369.33
Overpaid child maintenance — — 1 1,450.43 22 20,974.67 — — 23 22,425.10
Restitution — — — — 1 60.80 — — 1 60.80
Incorrect MA — — 1 269.90 2 592.55 5 348.40 8 1,210.85
Accounting error — — 4 920.12 1 258.72 — — 5 1,178.84
Legal costs 1 100.00 1 1,000.00 3 3,490.81 — — 5 4,590.81
Bank charges — — 17 490.23 5 1,686.91 — — 22 2,177.14
Travel/post/tel costs — — 7 23.12 1 1.69 — — 8 24.81

Until the absent parent's circumstances are known it would be impossible to produce a meaningful estimate of the effect of taking on these cases on public funds. We could only do this by examining every deferred case that has subsequently been assessed. These would be impossible to identify.In practice we do not believe the effect on public funds will be very great because a significant number of the deferred cases will be those in which the parent with care had no incentive to pursue their application because the absent parent was on income support.Deferring the take on of these cases enabled us to concentrate on new cases and those that were more likely to result in a positive outcome for the parent with care and the general taxpayer. We believe that this approach will have been of overall benefit to public funds.
Dr. Wright

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many complaints have been made to the Child Support Agency since its inception; how many complaints have been upheld; in how many cases financial compensation has been paid and on what grounds; and what have been the amounts paid in each case and in total. [7817]

Mr. Mitchell

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Ann Chant to Dr. Tony Wright, dated 16 January 1996: I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about complaints made to the Child Support Agency. Since the inception of the Agency in April 1993 up to the end of November 1995, the Agency has recorded 60,826 complaints. A significant proportion of those complaints concern general child support policy or the legal powers of the Agency. Many of the complaints are from persons who are opposed to the legislation but not actually affected by it. The number of complaints specifically about the Agency's administrative performance is not separately identified, but it is considerably less than the global figure shown above. All complaints on agency administration are investigated although specific information on the number subsequently upheld is not collected. Only a small proportion of complaints include a query about or request for financial compensation. Under our Departmental scheme a special payment will be considered where a clear unambiguous error by the Agency has resulted in an actual financial loss to the client. The attached table shows the categories under which special payments have been made, the number of payments made and the total cost of those payments. I hope this is helpful.

Special payments made (up until 30 November 1995)
1993–94 April—March One-off ex-gratia payments 1994–95 April—March One-off ex-gratia payments 1995–96 April—March One-off ex-gratia payments Continuing ex-gratia payments Total ex-gratia payments
Number of payments Total amount paid £ Number of payments Total amount paid £ Number of payments Total amount paid £ Number of payments Total amount paid £ Total number Total cost £
Misc expenses (DEO fees) — — 1 1.00 2 9.00 — — 3 10.00
Breach of confidentiality 1 310.00 — — 2 2,500.00 — — 3 2,810.00
Worry and distress — — — — 1 1,500.00 — — 1 1,500.00
Total 2 410.00 35 4,469.10 70 51,525.00 5 348.40 112 56,752.50