§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what assessment he has made of the 181W efficiency of the service offered to child support claimants by the Office of the Independent Case Examiner; and if he will made a statement; [9704]
(2) what the backlog of child support cases to be examined by the Independent Case Examiner is; [9702]
(3) what the budget is for the office of the Independent Case Examiner for child support cases in the current financial year; [9700]
(4) what the average waiting time was before a child support case is examined by the Independent Case Examiner in the last three months; [9703]
(5) if he will make a statement on the delays experienced by child support claimants in having cases examined by the Independent Care Examiner; [9699]
(6) what plans he has to recruit staff to the office of the Independent Case Examiner for child support cases. [9701]
§ Malcolm WicksThe budget for the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) was increased in the current financial year to £1,684,311.00.
Recently, the number of investigative staff has increased from 25 to 42 and there are plans to appoint two further staff to support the new ICE.
The time between a case being received by the ICE and bringing it into action was, on average, 23 weeks for the three-month period ending in September 2001. There are currently 114 such cases awaiting action.
The ICE shares our concerns about the length of time it has taken to deal with cases in the past. A recent review of working practices has led to changes in case processing methods. This, together with the additional staff and financial resources already made available, will enable cases to be dealt with more efficiently. The delays currently experienced by parents awaiting action on their case will be reduced.