HL Deb 23 January 1996 vol 568 c65WA
Earl Russell

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether, further to Sir Michael Partridge's evidence to the Public Accounts Committee (Q.62), they have considered whether a maintenance disregard might give parents with care an incentive to return forms faster.

Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish

There are likely to be a number of reasons why parents with care do not return their forms quickly and we have no reason to suppose that a maintenance disregard would act as an incentive. The Child Support Agency Customer Satisfaction Survey 1994 found that the most common reasons that parents with care gave for not filling in the form straight away were that they:

  • were too busy (28 per cent.)
  • did not want to fill it in (18 per cent.)
  • forgot about it (11 per cent.)
  • were waiting to get the required information (9 per cent.).