§ Chris RuaneTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) on what date the Child Support Agency EDS (Plain Version) Plan will be available; [160356]
(2) what progress has been made in resolving the failings of the new Child Support Agency computer systems; and what timescale has been set for the problems to be resolved. [160360]
§ Mr. PondThe administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Mike Isaac to Mr. Chris Ruane, dated 1 April 2004:
In replying to your recent Parliamentary questions about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive. As he is currently on leave I am replying on his behalf.You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on what date the Child Support Agency EDS (Plain Version) Plan will be available and what progress has been made in resolving the failings of the new computer systems; and what timescale has been set for the problems to be resolved.We now have a plan from EDS in plain English. We are using that as a basis for establishing our own plans covering exactly what needs to be done and by when.It is not yet possible to provide a definitive timescale within which all known problems with the computer and telephony service will be resolved. I will continue to monitor this carefully and make regular reports to the Secretary of State on progress. As you are aware, reports have been made available in the House of Commons Library on 16 July, 18 November 2003 and 12 February 2004.
§ Chris RuaneTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the current timescale is for a manual payment to be made to a parent with care once the Child Support Agency has identified that the case is a new system failure; and how much money has been received from non-resident parents and not yet paid to parents with care under the new system. [160359]
§ Mr. PondThe administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
1617WLetter from Doug Smith to Mr. Chris Ruane, dated 1 April 2004:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the current timescale is for a manual payment to be made to a parent with care once the Child Support Agency has identified that the case is a new system failure; and how much money has been received from non-resident parents and not yet paid to parents with care under the new system.As at 31 January we had received maintenance payments on the new computer system totalling £18.9 million, in addition to this amount we received £7.1 million that was due to be paid to the Secretary of State. For the same period we made payments to parents with care totalling £18.5 million. At any point in time we will be holding receipts, which are awaiting assignment to a parent with care's account. As at 31 January, £368,868 was awaiting assignment to parents with care whose cases are on the new computer system.When we identify that the computer cannot make a payment automatically, the case is referred to a specialist team. The average delay in making a manual payment is 10 working days; we are currently issuing around 150 payments each week.
§ Chris RuaneTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many incidents of non-payment of money received from the non-resident parent to the parent with care owing to software failure there have been under the new Child Support Agency system for(a) new straightforward cases and (b) migrated cases. [160361]
§ Mr. PondThe administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Chris Ruane, dated 1 April 2004:
In replying to your recent Parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief ExecutiveYou asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many incidents of non-payment of money received from the non-resident parent to the parent with care owing to software failure there have been under the new system for (a) new straightforward cases and (b) migrated cases.The information that you seek is unavailable. However I can tell you that between August 2003 and February 2004 the new computer system generated over 346,000 payments to a parent with care representing moneys paid to us by the non-resident parent. In the same period just over 1,700 payments were issued manually.
§ Mr. HunterTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the planned date is by which all Child Support Agency maintenance assessments calculated under the old system will have been transferred to the new system. [160743]
§ Mr. PondI refer the hon. Member to the Written Answer I gave the hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink) on 18 December 2003,Official Report, column 1092W.
1618W
§ Jon TrickettTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what performance measures are in place for Child Support Agency caseworkers in English regions; what the most recent performance delivery against these measures was; and how many caseworkers in Yorkshire have been disciplined for poor service provision in the last three years. [162156]
§ Mr. PondThe administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to my hon. Friend with the information requested.
Letter from Mike Isaac to Mr. John Trickett, dated 1 April 2004:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive. As he is currently on leave I am replying on his behalf.You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what performance measures are in place for Child Support Agency caseworkers in English regions; what the most recent performance delivery against these measures was; and how many caseworkers in Yorkshire have been disciplined for poor service provision in the last three years.The Agency adopts a consistent set of performance measures across Great Britain. These are set out and published in the Agency's Business Plan. The plan for 2003/04 was placed in the library of the House of Commons on 29 April 2003. Reports on Agency performance during the course of the current year have also been placed in the library of the House of Commons on 16 July, 18 November 2003 and 12 February 2004. Information with regard to the number of caseworkers in Yorkshire that have been disciplined for poor service provision is not routinely collected and is therefore unavailable.
§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list each of his Department's performance targets for the(a) old and (b) new Child Support Agency scheme; and what the latest performance against each of those targets is. [162681]
§ Mr. Pond[holding answer 22 March 2004]The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Steve Webb, dated 1 April 2004:
In replying to your recent Parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list each of his Department's performance targets for the (a) old and (b) Child Support Agency scheme; and what the latest performance against each of those targets is.The performance targets for 2003/04 are set out and published in the Agency's Business Plan for that year. This was placed in the Library of the House of Commons on 29 April 2003. I have attached a copy of this section of the plan.The Secretary of State issued a Written Statement on progress in the new scheme performance on 12 February 2004. A report of the Agency's performance for the year 2003/04 will be included in the Annual Report and Accounts, which will be published in June.1619W
Child Support Agency: Performance against targets as at February 2004 percentage Target Agency Secretary of State Targets—Old Scheme The overall Proportion of cases to achieve Full Maintenance Assessment to be 33 Per cent. on old scheme cases. 33.0 22.6 Secretary of State Targets—New Scheme The overall Proportion of cases to achieve Full Maintenance Assessment to be 53 Per cent. on new scheme cases. 53.0 60 The accuracy on the last decision for all assessments checked in the year to be correct to nearest penny in at least 90 Per cent. of cases. 90.0 86.4 Case Compliance 78 Not Known Case Compliance 75 Not Known Throughput of cases from application to Payment arrangement 6 weeks Not Known Throughput and Case and Cash Compliance
Issues with the new computer's management information systems, mean that we are unable to provide reliable performance figures at present. We are working to resolve the problems and expect to have a solution shortly.Customer Perception
The aim of this target is to focus on how th[...] service provided by the Agency is perceived by those who use it. A qualitative study has been commissioned to look at the experiences and views of new customers whose only involvement will have been with the new scheme. The results of this will be used to establish a baseline from which a customer perception target will be developed. The Agency is now committed to publishing a milestone target in the Business Plan for 2004/05 leading to a published target in 2005/06.Unit Cost/Productivity
The Agency published an internal unit cost target in the 2003–04 business plan. This target was based on Agency staff cost and the number of cases on the live load. The target for 2003–04 was £184 per case. Our performance in the year to date is within £10 of the target figure.Debt
Our target is to introduce an internal target for this year and a Secretary of State target for 2004/05. Work continues on the development of the format of the Secretary of State target for 2004/05.
§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the percentage of Child Support Agency cases that are active on the(a) old and (b) new system; and if he will estimate what the percentages for each of the next 10 years would be if the new child support system continues to take on only new and linked cases. [164048]
§ Mr. Pond[holding answer 26 March 2004]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Webb, dated 1 April 2004:
In replying to your recent Parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of state promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.1620WYou asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will estimate the percentage of Child Support Agency cases that are active on the (a) old and (b) new system; and if he will estimate what the percentage for each of the next 10 years would be if the new child support system continues to take on only new and linked cases.At 31 December the Agency held over £1 million cases within its systems. At that date 24% of active cases were held on the new computer system and 76% of active cases were held on the old system. I am unable to estimate what the percentages are for the next 10 years, nevertheless if the current rate of transfer continues I estimate that by 30 September the balance will be around 33% on the new system and around 67% on the old.
§ Dr. IddonTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether reassessments of pre-2003 Child Support Agency clients transferred to the post-2003 assessment system will apply retrospectively. [164266]
§ Mr. PondNo. Old scheme cases will transfer to the new scheme on a date which has yet to be decided. We will make a decision once we are sure the new arrangements are working well. Some cases have converted early where they are linked to a new scheme case.
§ Mrs. BrookeTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he expects to know when the existing child support cases on the old system of assessment will be transferred to the new system of assessment. [165230]
§ Mr. PondThe Child Support Agency now has a recovery plan from EDS (the IT supplier). The agency will use that IT recovery plan as a basis for establishing how this meets the needs of the business.
It is not yet possible to provide a time scale for when cases on the old scheme will be transferred to the new one.
§ Mr. Simon ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claims for child maintenance have not been paid in each of the last five years owing to the Child Support Agency being unable to find the correct address of the absentee parent. [161378]
§ Mr. PondThe administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Simon Thomas, dated 1 April 2004:
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims of child maintenance have not been paid in each of the last five years owing to the Child Support Agency being unable to find the correct address of the absentee parent.I'm sorry that this information is not available. It is not information that we have been routinely required to collect.
§ Mr. CatonTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what system is being used to decide the order of priority whereby old rules child support cases are transferred to the new rules. [164890]
§ Mr. PondI refer my hon. Friend to the Written Answer I gave the hon. Member for Dartford (Dr. Stoate) on 27 January 2004,Official Report, column 341W.