HC Deb 20 January 1995 vol 252 cc756-8W
Mr. Frank Field

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how many parents with care on income support prior to April 1993(a) have had their cases taken on by the Child Support Agency and (b) will have the take-on of their cases delayed;

(2) how many parents with care, who have not returned their maintenance application form for over six months, will not have their cases pursued;

(3) how many parents with care in receipt of family credit prior to April 1993 have (a) had their cases taken on by the Child Support Agency and (b) have still to have their cases taken on;

(4) how many parents with care, who have returned their maintenance applications forms with insufficient information to progress the case, will not have their case pursued; and, in this category, what is the Child Support Agency's definition of insufficient information;

(5) if parents with care who do not return their maintenance application forms for six months or more will have their cases delayed or if this provision will apply only to those outstanding for more than six months at 20 December 1994.

Mr. Burt

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for Miss Ann Chant, the chief executive. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Ann Chant to Mr. Frank Field, dated 20 January 1995: I am replying to your recent Parliamentary Questions to the Secretary of State for Social Security on the operations of the Child Support Agency. Between April 1993 and the end of October 1994, the Agency recorded the issue of 1,111,700 maintenance application forms to parents with care. Of these, 291,000 went to parents who were in receipt of income support before the implementation of the Child Support Act 1991, and 296,000 to parents receiving Family Credit (FC) or Disability Working Allowance (DWA). Cases where FC or DWA was in payment prior to April 1993 cannot be identified separately within this latter figure, but there should be no remaining cases in this category where an application form has not been issued to the parent with care. The measures announced on 20 December will enable the Agency to give priority to improving its performance in achieving accurate and regular payments of maintenance in the applications already received, and in the new cases which it will continue to take on. The measures allow the Agency to defer the take on of the remaining pre—April 1993 income support cases, with an estimated 340,000 cases being deferred. In addition, some several thousand cases are expected to be deferred where an application form was issued more than six months ago but either has not been returned at all, or is lacking information necessary to progress the case. Such information includes, for example, details of the absent parent and/or the qualifying child. Parents who have returned their incomplete form will be asked whether they wish the Agency to continue to process their application at the present time. This will be a one off exercise relating only to maintenance application forms issued before 1 July 1994. A precise figure will be available for the cases which can be deferred where the application form was issued before 1 July once an exercise has been completed to identify those which fulfil the criteria. This should be about the middle of March. The Agency will continue to deal with all applications arising from new and repeat claims to benefit, and from parents not in receipt of benefit without existing maintenance agreements. It will also still be able to take on cases where parents in receipt of income support wish to make an early application for a maintenance assessment. There is absolutely no question of deferring a case because the Absent Parent has refused to cooperate with the Agency. The Agency will recommence the take—on of the deferred cases where the Parent With Care is currently in receipt of a prescribed benefit just as soon as it is in a position to deal with them promptly and effectively. I hope that this is of help.

Mr. Frank Field

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many parents with care since implementation of the Child Support Act 1991 have(a) not returned the maintenance application form, (b) had good cause accepted and (c) been subject to the benefit penalty.

Mr. Burt

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for Miss Ann Chant, the chief executive. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Ann Chant to Mr. Frank Field, dated 20 January 1995: I am replying to your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the total number of maintenance assessment forms not returned to the Child Support Agency and the number of claims by Parents With Care (PWC) of good cause not to cooperate with the Agency in arranging maintenance. According to the Agency's records, 1,111,733 maintenance application forms have been issued and 802,561 returned. However, not all of the remainder still have action outstanding since good cause activity will either have been completed or still be ongoing in many. In others, the parent with care will no longer be in receipt of a prescribed benefit. The Agency accepted that in 57,000 cases the PWC had good cause not to cooperate with the Agency. Of the 39,000 cases where good cause was not accepted, a total of 11,500 reduced benefit directions were issued to the Benefits Agency for imposition. Details of the number of cases in which benefit was actually reduced is not currently available, except at disproportionate cost. The Agency is, however, taking steps which will make this information available in the future. I hope that this is of help.