§ Earl Russellasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many absent parents on income support have had 5 per cent. deducted from their income support under the Child Support Act 1991.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Social Security (Viscount Astor)The administration of income support is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the noble Earl.
Letter to Earl Russell from the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, Mr. Michael Bichard, dated 28 April 1994.
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent parliamentary Question asking Her Majesty's Government how many absent parents on Income Support (IS) have had 5 per cent. deducted from their IS under the Child Support Act 1991.
The information is not available and could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost. To obtain the information would involve a physical examination of every live and closed file currently held; in excess of 12 million cases.
The Benefits Agency does not keep a running total of the number of individual customers whose benefit has been reduced because a deduction has been made for child support. However, routine management statistics are maintained on a quarterly basis which show that the number of IS customers with a deduction for child support for the quarter ending 28 February was 16,413.
Although quarterly statistics have been kept since deductions for child support commenced, these do not represent the total number of customers who will have 51WA had deductions made, as many customers will feature in consecutive quarters dependent on the time they are in receipt of IS.
I hope you find this reply helpful.