§ Mr. Geoffrey RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how many appeals there have been to the CSA in(a) the west midlands and (b) England in the last year; and of these how many led to a change in the maintenance demanded from parents in (i) the west midlands and (ii) England; [4372]
(2) how long is the average delay between a successful appeal to the CSA and the correction in the maintenance payments in (a) the west midlands and (b) England; [4373]
(3) how many cases the CSA dealt with over the last year in (a) the west midlands and (b) England. [4371]
§ Mr. Andrew MitchellThe 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 Mr. Geoffrey Robinson, dated 20 November 1996:
687WI am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency's handling of appeals, and the associated question regarding the Agency's caseload.The latest period for which full-time information is available is financial year 1995/96. The details requested are not available as specified, ie West Midlands and England. The figures set out in the table attached are for the Agency as a whole, and for Dudley Child Support Agency Centre (CSAC), which has responsibility for cases in the West Midlands (and other areas).Included are the numbers of appeals received and cleared in 1995/96. Clearances are made up of cases withdrawn, cases outside the jurisdiction of the Independent Tribunal Service (ITS), and those submitted to ITS; they also include cases from the previous year which were not cleared until 1995/96. You should note that appeals can be lodged for a number of reasons, and a successful appeal will not always result in a change in the maintenance assessment.ITS provide information on decisions only on an Agency basis, and it is therefore not possible to give a breakdown of those cases upheld or overturned for Dudley.With regard to the question on the average delay between successful appeal to the CSA and the correction in the maintenance payments, we do not routinely collect the information in the form requested.However, we have recently taken a business decision to re-assess cases returned by ITS in a Central Appeals Unit (CAU), rather than in the CSACs. and this has been in operation since September. This ensures closer, central control of the process. A recent sample of cases processed under this arrangement showed that once the decision of the ITS reaches the CAU, it currently takes an average of 14 working days for them to gather relevant information and to carry out a re-assessment. The case is then passed to the relevant CSAC for implementation of the revised assessment.I hope this is helpful.
Total for agency 1995– Total for Dudley 1995– Number of appeals received 7,121 1,190 Number of appeals cleared 8,117 1,270 Number of appeals submitted to ITS1 6,948 1,075 Number of appeals where CSO's2 decision upheld 1,236 n/a Number of appeals where CSO's2 decision overturned 4,399 n/a Number of cases taken on by CSA 386,052 63,268 1ITS = Independent Tribunal Service. 2CSO = Child Support Officer. n/a = not available.
§ Ms LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many cases set out in his answer of 7 November 1995,Official Report, column 435, are represented by the headings (a) resulting from pre-CSA assessment paid direct to parent with care, (b) resulting from pre-CSA assessment paid through the agency collection service, (c) resulting from CSA assessments paid direct to parent with care and (d) resulting from CSA assessments paid through agency collection service for each month in the financial year April 1994 to March 1995. [4778]
§ Mr. MitchellThere is no business need to maintain data in this format. The information requested is not available.