§ Mrs. MahonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will set out details of the compensation scheme available in the case of the Child Support Agency failing to take appropriate action;
(2) how many time compensation has been awarded by the Child Support Agency when they failed to take appropriate action.
§ Mr. BurtThe Child Support Agency may consider paying compensation under the terms of the Department of Social Security special payments arrangements. Since the CSA is a relatively new business, we are considering how those arrangements might better cover CSA cases. When these are agreed, we shall be making public the296W criteria under which payments for redress may be considered as we do for other agencies of the Department. In the meantime, officials will carefully consider the merits of any requests for compensation and what redress, if any, should be made.
To the end of January 1995, we have made special payments for financial redress on 34 occasions.