HC Deb 05 December 1995 vol 268 cc149-50W
Mr. Mills

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to change the Child Support Agency rates regarding the calculation of ex-husband obligations; and if he will make a statement. [2579]

Mr. Andrew Mitchell

The child support maintenance formula is based on income support benefit rates. The rates in protected income for non-householders' housing costs are based on the non-dependent deductions under housing benefit rules. The relevant amounts will increase form April 1996, as announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State in his statement on Wednesday 29 November,Official Report, columns 1212–15.

The formula will continue to ensure that no absent parent is assessed to pay more than 30 per cent. of his net income in current maintenance.

Mr. Mills

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to improve the client communications of the Child Support Agency; and if he will make a statement. [2674]

Mr. Mitchell

The 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. lain Mills, dated 30 November 1995: I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency's client communications. I understand that you may have some specific concerns about a particular case and if that is so I would be happy to look at those for you. Earlier this year the Child Support Agency reviewed its procedures for dealing with Members enquiries. We looked carefully at our procedures and concluded that not only should we issue a revised set of guidelines to staff on how to deal with enquiries from Members but that we should use those improved guidelines to form the basis of a training brief to raise staff awareness about the important role that MPs play in our business. The training brief is currently being piloted. The guidelines place the responsibility for providing accurate and comprehensive replies to MP enquiries firmly with the section responsible for that part, or parts, of child support business about which the MP has expressed concern. The guidelines also make it clear that promises of future action and monitoring that action also lies with the section giving that undertaking. Our business plan makes it clear that we aim to reply to MPs' letters within an average of 20 working days from the date of receipt, with acknowledgments sent within 2 working days. Where a Member contacts one of our Centres by telephone using the specially designated 'MPs hot-line' (set up in late 1993 to meet Members concerns about the speedy resolution of very difficult constituency cases), we aim to return the call within 24 hours with a full explanation made to timescales agreed with the Member or his or her secretary. The time taken to give a full explanation will obviously depend on the individual circumstances of the case but it is important that dialogue continues until the case is cleared to the Member's satisfaction. I would be very interested to know if our procedures are not working properly and are failing to deliver the sort of service we want to offer to MPs. Where a client contacts one of our centres the call is routed to a team of operators who are trained in all aspects of child support work and who in the vast majority of cases, provide a one stop service to callers. The introduction of these dedicated telephone teams has been very successful, with more than 1 million calls answered since April 1995. The placing of incoming calls to a dedicated section releases staff working in business areas to concentrate on core business activities. In those cases where the team are unable to deal with a particularly complex enquiry then details are taken and passed to the relevant section for a reply. The complexity of our work makes it impracticable for one member of staff to have complete knowledge of every aspect of our business. We do know however, that most of our clients would prefer to have contact with fewer members of staff and we are looking at how best this might be achieved, perhaps by actioning cases within a smaller team of people. I hope this information is helpful to you, but once again if you have a particular case in mind please do not hesitate to write to me.