§ Ms LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many official complaints have been received by the Child Support Agency in each month since the agency started to operate. [28056]
§ Mr. Andrew 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 May 1996.
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security as to the number of official complaints received by the Child Support Agency.
We have not separately identified 'official' complaints to the Agency, but have taken the broadest view as to what constitutes a complaint whether it be against the policy, the administration or some other aspect of Child Support legislation.'
So what we record as complaints will cover things like policy issues; concerns about the imposition of deduction from earnings orders; the level of assessed maintenance; requests for assessments to be rechecked; the time taken to process a case; general administrative concerns and suggestions that the other client's affairs have not been properly taken into account. We also include complaints and queries from people who are not clients of the Agency.
The table attached shows a monthly breakdown of all such complaints received in 1994/95 and 1995/96; we did not keep monthly totals in 1993/94.
I hope this is helpful.
279W
Number of complaints received by Child Support Agency Number 1993–94 10,886 1994–95 April 1,465 May 1,984 June 1,881 July 1,992 August 1,131 September 2,536 October 2,579 November 3,070 December 2,458 January 1,483 February 3,121 March 3,948 1995–96 April 3,025 May 2,501 June 3,113 July 2,281 August 3,160 September 2,645 October 3,004 November 2,813 December 1,792 January 1,922 February 2,373 March 1,962