§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish the letter from the Data Protection Registrar concerning powers of the Child Support Agency to require the disclosure of personal data. [5302]
§ Mr. Andrew MitchellThe letter referred to by the Data Protection Registrar in her annual report, together with my response, has been placed in the Library.
§ Ms. LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will give a month by month breakdown of lost incoming calls recorded by the Child Support Agency's telephone system since April 1993. [4174]
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§ Mr. MitchellThe 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 Ms Liz Lynne, dated 9 January 1996:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency telephone system.The information you have requested is not available from April 1993. Figures became available from September 1994. The attached table shows a month by month breakdown from September 1994 until October 1995.Like any other business where a great deal of contact with clients is by telephone, it is worth pointing out that where calls are unsuccessful for whatever reason, be it the client choosing to ring at another time or experiencing difficulty in connection, there will almost certainly be future contact which will be successful.I hope this is helpful.
Calls to Calls to Month CSACs lost NEL lost Total September 1994 47,760 779 48.539 October 1994 38,567 423 38,990 November 1994 36,434 531 36,965 December 1994 26,780 803 27,583 January 1995 51,083 5,551 56,634 February 1995 22,573 3,146 25,719 March 1995 18,477 4,211 22,688 April 1995 7,007 9,995 17,002 May 1995 4,744 833 5,577 June 1995 3,740 381 4,121 July 1995 4,212 533 4,745 August 1995 5,289 470 5.759 September 1995 4,969 1,091 6,060 October 1995 4,156 942 5,098 275,791 29,689 305,480
§ Mr. WaldenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if the Child Support Agency uses calling line identification on incoming telephone calls. [6243]
§ Mr. MitchellThe 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. George Walden, dated 9 January 1996:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency's use of calling line identification.Calling line identification is a facility provided by British Telecom to all users, and is used by the Child Support Agency Centres to display incoming telephone numbers. The facility was activated by the Agency as a security aid to identify the source of abusive calls and bomb threats.
§ Mr. SimpsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much has been collected by the Child Support Agency, each year, since its inception; what the running costs of the agency have been for each of these years; and how much has been passed on as a direct net financial gain to the parent with care. [6330]
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§ Mr. MitchellThe 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. Alan Simpson, dated 9 January 1996:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about maintenance collected by the Child Support Agency.The table attached shows the amounts of maintenance collected, and the proportion of maintenance paid to parents with care for each of the first two years of Child Support Agency operations and for the first seven months of the current year.In addition, the Agency was involved in arranging maintenance for direct payment by the absent parent to the parent with care, amounting to an estimated £111 million during 1994–95. £70.67 million has been arranged between April and October 1995. Comparable figures are not available for 1993–94.A proportion of the maintenance paid to parents with care will have offset benefit paid, but it is not possible to say how much. However, all maintenance paid to parents with care represents a financial benefit for the parent with care providing a firm basis for them to seek employment and claim Family Credit.From launch on 5 April 1993, the Agency's net cost of operations during 1993–94 was £139 million as published in the annual accounts on 28 November 1994. The net cost of operations during 1994–95 was £192 million as published in the annual accounts on 18 July 1995. Expenditure statements in both annual reports are prepared on an accruals basis. The total Agency running costs budget for 1995–96 is £196.9 million.I hope this is helpful.
1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 to October Maintenance collected (£ million) 13.10 76.40 72.64 Maintenance collected and paid to parent with care (£ million) 2.99 27.89 29.97 Proportion of maintenance collected and paid to parent with care. 22.83 per cent. 36.51 per cent. 41.26 per cent.
§ Mr. WaldenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the average weekly maintenance payment via the Child Support Agency collection service for cases which are(a) fully compliant and (b) partially compliant, indicating separately type A interim assessments and full maintenance assessments. [6241]
§ Mr. MitchellThe administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter front Ann Chant to Mr. George Walden, dated 9 January 1996:
264WI am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about maintenance payments to the Child Support Agency.You asked about the weekly maintenance in cases which are fully and partially paid. Whilst specific information on these cases is not available, the average amount of maintenance assessment in cases with an interim assessment is £95.29 and with a full maintenance assessment, when the absent parent has earned income, the figure is £39.69. The breakdown of cases is shown on the attached table.I hope this is helpful.
Cases using the CSA collection service Number of cases involving type A interim maintenance assessments Number of cases involving full maintenance assessments Fully paid1 6,826 42,280 Partially paid2 16,521 74,601 Not paid 58,961 12,473 Total 82,308 129,354 1 Full compliance—no payments outstanding. 2 Partial compliance—at least one payment received in the last thirteen weeks.
§ Mr. WaldenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much is owing to the Child Support Agency collection service attributable(a) to type a interim maintenance assessments and (b) to full maintenance assessments, broken down by month from April 1994 until the most recent data available. [6242]
§ Mr. MitchellThe 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. George Walden, dated 9 January 1996:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about how much is owing to the Child Support Agency collection service.At the end of October 1995, the total outstanding debt amounted to £766 million. It is estimated that the proportion of this debt which is attributable to interim maintenance assessments (IMAs) is 65 per cent. (approximately £498 million), and 35 per cent. (approximately £268 million) is attributable to full maintenance assessments (FMAs). It is not possible to give a monthly breakdown from April 1994 as this information only became available from September 1995.It is not possible to further break down the £498 million debt by category of IMA, but the vast majority of this debt can be attributed to category A IMAs. This is because the other types of IMAs (Category B, C and D) are used in circumstances where the absent parent is likely to be cooperating with the Agency.I hope this is helpful.
§ Mr. ThurnhamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what checks are made by the Child Support Agency to ensure that it has correctly identified an absent parent before it contacts that parent.[7227]
§ Mr. MitchellThe 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. Peter Thurnham, dated 9 January 1996:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about checks made by the Child Support Agency prior to contacting an absent parent (AP).Information about absent parents is provided to the Agency in the first instance by the parent with care (PWC) on a maintenance application form. The form requests details of the name, sex, date of birth, National Insurance number, and the address of the AP.Where the PWC has provided a current address for the AP, and paternity is not an issue, the Agency issues a maintenance enquiry form by post to the AP. It is made clear to a person receiving a maintenance enquiry form from the Agency that the form has been issued on information provided to the Agency. The recipient is invited to contact the Agency for advice including those who believe they have been incorrectly identified.Where the PWC is unable to provide a current address, the Agency takes action to trace the AP on the information provided by the PWC. The first step in this action is to use the Departmental 265W Central Index (DCI) to find a match with the information that has been provided by the PWC. Where the information provided produces a single positive match with DCI, a maintenance enquiry form is issued to the address held. Where more than one possible match is found, a Child Support Officer (CS0) may then return to the PWC for any other information that can be given to enable a positive match to be made. If more information is received which allows a positive match to be made, a maintenance enquiry form is issued.Where a positive match still cannot be made, the CSO will take specialist trace action to try to find the AP. The action taken will depend on the amount of information provided by the PWC, and may take the form of contacting other Government departments, for example, the Inland Revenue. Once again, a maintenance enquiry form is only issued when the CSO is satisfied that a positive match has been made.Where more than one possible match exists and all attempts have failed to produce a positive match, the CSO will consider referring the case for a visit to be made to establish the identity of the AP. The officer who conducts such a visit would have all the available information on the AP, including description details provided by the PWC and a photograph if possible so that mistaken identity is avoided. In every case, at every stage, checks are made to ensure that the correct person has been identified before contact is made with the absent parent.As with any human process mistakes can occur despite all our security measures, but they are very rare. Available data shows that out of 852,763 maintenance enquiry forms issued from April 1993 (the inception of the Agency), to October 1995, 222 of them (0.026 per cent) were issued to someone who in fact had no child maintenance liability in the case concerned. Of this relatively small
Income support claimants by GSS region: May 1992–February 1995 Income support recipients May 1992 All with Income Support 16–17 18–24 Region All cases Economically active Not Economically active All cases Economically active Not Economically active Of which 18– 24 year with VU reduction South East (ex London) 4,000 1,000 3,000 119,000 77,000 42,000 3,000 London (inner and outer) 4,000 1,000 3,000 135,000 85,000 50,000 2,000 North 1,000 — 1,000 84,000 37.000 27,000 1,000 Wales 2,000 — 2,000 63,000 28.000 25,000 — Scotland 4,000 2,000 2,000 96,000 53,000 42,000 1,000 Yorkshire and Humberside 4,000 1,000 3,000 90,000 52,000 38,000 1,000 East Midlands 3,000 1,000 2,000 63,000 36,000 27,000 2,000 East Anglia 1,000 — 1,000 23,000 15,000 8,000 1,000 South-West 3,000 1,000 2,000 56,000 38,000 19,000 2,000 West Midlands 3,000 1,000 2,000 94,000 56,000 38,000 2,000 North-West 3,000 1.000 2,000 135,000 75,000 80,000 2,000 Great Britain 30,000 8,000 22,000 925,000 549,000 378,000 16,000
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Income support claimants by GSS region: May 1992–February 1995 Income support recipients August 1993 All with Income Support 16–17 18–24 Region All cases Economically active Not Economically active All cases Economically active Not Economically active Of which 18–24 year with VU reduction1 South East (ex London) 5,000 2,000 3,000 153,000 107,000 46,000 — London (inner and outer) 4,000 2,000 2,000 167,000 112,000 55,000 — North 3.000 1,000 2,000 70,000 40,000 30,000 — Wales 2,000 1,000 2,000 61,000 36,000 25,000 — Scotland 5.000 2,000 3,000 101,000 59,000 42,000 — number, by no means all were because the Agency acted incorrectly (PWCs sometimes give wrong information), but wherever our strict procedures are breached, disciplinary action is taken against any member os staff who is culpable.
I hope this is helpful.