Child Support Agency (Hansard, 6 July 1998)

§ 30. Mr. Baldry
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when she next expects to meet the chief executive of the Child Support Agency to discuss the work of the Child Support Agency. [47500]

§ Mr. Keith Bradley
My noble Friend Baroness Hollis of Heigham the Minister with day to day responsibility for child support, has regular meetings with the Chief Executive of the Child Support Agency to discuss operational issues.

§ 32. Mr. Borrow
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if she will make a statement on her Department's plans to change the distribution of offices of the Child Support Agency. [47504]

§ Mr. Keith Bradley
The Child Support Agency has recently transferred the routine processing work, which does not involve face to face contact, from its local sites to the six large Child Support Agency Centres. This will mean that it can be handled more efficiently. This change has released resources to deal with rising workloads and it will allow the Agency to offer significantly more face to face contact with its clients in a greater range of locations, including, in the future, local Citizens Advice Bureaux.

§ Mr. Cox
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what are the current estimated arrears which are owed to the Child Support Agency; [47343]
(2) how many requests have been received from a parent wishing to have a personal interview with a Child Support Agency official in England and Wales during the last 12 months. [47340]

§ Mr. Keith Bradley
The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mrs. Faith Boardman. She will write to my hon. Friend.
Letter from Faith Boardman to Mr. Tom Cox, dated 3 July 1998: I am replying to your Parliamentary Questions to the Secretary of State for Social Security about arrears which are owed to the Child Support Agency and interviews with officials of the Child Support Agency. The amount of child support full maintenance assessment debt outstanding at the 31 May 1998, was £731;,620,185.51. The Agency undertakes a Debt Analysis exercise at the end of each financial year. The Debt Analysis exercise for 1996–97 indicated that the percentage of full maintenance assessment debt regarded as probably uncollectable was 38%. Similar analysis is being carried out for 1997–98 and the results will be published in the Agency's 1997–98 Annual Report and Accounts in July 1998, in a format which will satisfy the Committee of Public Accounts recommendation that the Agency "…examine the scope for eliminating a significant amount of this debt, since it is unlikely ever to be collected…". We now have a computerised Debt Management System which identifies cases promptly where payment comes overdue. The system allows staff to automatically track debts and to prioritise cases for early telephone contact with defaulting non-resident parents. The voice link system automatically dials the defaulters and presents answered calls to staff, giving details of the relevant cases on the computer screen which saves considerable staff time. Early dialogue is then established with the non-resident parent to seek to re-instate payments. This robust approach to non-compliant 405W non-resident parents will lead to progressive improvements in collection and enforcement. Such contact with the non-resident parent also leads to early identification of changes of circumstances which can prevent inappropriate debt accruing. As part of its ongoing commitment to provide a high quality service to its customers, the Agency offers face to face interviews to both non-resident parents and parents with care. The facility for face to face interviews is widely publicised by means of: The Child Support Agency Charter. The Maintenance Application pack and Maintenance Enquiry pack include notes for parents telling them that they can contact an Agency local office if they want advice or further information. Parents contacting the Child Support Agency national Enquiry Line are advised of the facility for face to face interviews, where appropriate. During the 12 months up to 31 March 1998, the total number of interviews held by the Agency was 55,577; 51,368 of these were in England and Wales. These figures are collated to measure performance against the Agency's Charter Standard to see callers within 10 minutes of arrival when an appointment has been made; this has been achieved for over 2 years in all cases. I am quite convinced of the need for much increased face-to-face contact, not least because of its effectiveness in reducing the incidence of fraud, improving the explanations available to customers, and improving their compliance and co-operation. We have recently changed our organisational structure, and we aim to offer significantly more face to face contact on a peripatetic basis, in a greater range of locations which we hope in future will also include for example, CAB premises. As part of the wider strategy to improve face-to-face contact with DSS customers, the Government announced last year that CSA would be working more closely with their colleagues in the Benefits Agency which will provide customers with a one stop service. From 1 April 1998, Benefits Agency staff have been interviewing and assisting all new Income Support parents with care to complete their maintenance application form, where appropriate. The latest available figures show that between 1 April 1998 and 17 April 1998 the Benefits Agency have interviewed approximately 8,000 customers with Child Support Agency interest. I hope this is helpful.

§ Mr. Burns
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what are the total arrears for(a) category A interim assessments and (b) full maintenance assessments which are owed to the Child Support Agency. [48859]

§ 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 shortly.
Letter from Faith Boardman to Mr. Simon Burns, dated 3 July 1998: I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about arrears owed to the Child Support Agency. A large proportion of the maintenance outstanding attributable to category A interim maintenance assessments relates to the first two years of the Agency when interim maintenance assessments were more frequently imposed because of non co-operating non-resident parents. The Agency is developing the way it contacts non-resident parents, and the emphasis is now to make personal contact with non-resident parents as early in the assessment process as possible to reach agreement. In a large proportion of cases this now avoids the need to impose an interim maintenance assessment and prevents arrears of maintenance building up. The total amount of category A interim maintenance assessments outstanding (accrued since 1993) at 31 May 1998 was £728,203,563. 406W The move away from imposing punitive category A interim maintenance assessments to concentrating on completing full maintenance assessments has therefore led to an increase in the total full maintenance assessment debt. But this puts the Agency in a better, more realistic position to increase the flow of maintenance to parents with care, because the assessment reflects the actual circumstances of the non-resident parent. This is demonstrated by maintenance of £547.14 million being collected or arranged in 1997–98; an increase of 37 per cent. on the amount achieved in 1996–97. For 1998–99 the Secretary of State target requires £750 million of child maintenance to be collected and arranged by the Agency. The information on full maintenance assessment debt has recently been disclosed in response to a Parliamentary Question, 9 June 1998, Official Report, column 552. The amount of child support full maintenance assessment debt outstanding at the 31 May 1998, was £731,620,186. For £341,376,152 of this amount the Agency has obtained agreement from the non-resident parent to pay off the arrears by regular instalments. A large proportion of the remainder is either possibly or probably uncollectable. The Agency undertakes a Debt Analysis exercise at the end of each financial year. The Debt Analysis exercise for 1996–97 indicated that the percentage of full maintenance assessment debt regarded as probably uncollectable was 38 per cent. Similar analysis has been carried out for 1997–98 and the results will be published in the Agency's 1997–98 Annual Report and Accounts later this month, in a format which will satisfy the Committee of Public Accounts recommendation that the Agency "…examine the scope for eliminating a significant amount of this debt, since it is unlikely ever to be collected…". I hope this is helpful.

§ Mr. Barnes
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if she will estimate the impact of introducing a £15 per week disregard for income support when CSA assessments are awarded to income support recipients. [48459]

§ Mr. Keith Bradley
The estimated cost of disregarding £15 a week of maintenance received in Income Support is £140 million in 1999–2000. The Green Paper "Children First" presented to Parliament today by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Security proposes allowing lone parents on Income Support to keep up to £10 a week of any maintenance paid, bringing real help to children in the poorest families.