Child Support Agency (Hansard, 15 May 1996)

§ Mr. Moss

The Child Support Agency will publish its 1996–97 business plan today. Copies will be placed in the Library.

The targets that I have set for the Child Support Agency for 1996–97 are:

A target band of between £7.9 million and £8.3 million of maintenance to be either collected, or arranged for direct payment from absent parents to parents with care.¹
95 per cent. of payments made to parents with care to be made in 10 working days of receipt from an absent parent.
To achieve a continuing improvement in accuracy, so that in at least 85 per cent. of cases checked during March 1997 the cash value will be for the correct amount.
Where a client is dissatisfied with a child support officer's decision and requests a review, 55 per cent. to be cleared within 13 weeks; 80 per cent. to be cleared within 26 weeks; and no more than 15 per cent. to be older than six months as at 31 March 1997.
65 per cent. of new maintenance applications to be cleared within 26 weeks and as at 31 March 1997 no more than 2 per cent. of applications received by the agency to be over 12 months old.²
To manage the agency's resources so as to deliver its business plan within the gross budget allocation as adjusted during the course of the year; this includes the administration of the Belfast Child Support Agency Centre on behalf of the GB agency.

The targets are challenging and will require a substantial improvement in a number of areas of the agency's performance. The new targets include measures of accuracy and of the time taken to provide services. This underlines the agency's continuing focus on quality and client services in 1996–97.

¹This target includes cases where maintenance is paid direct by the absent parent to the parent with care.

² For this target, applications include all cases received via the Social Security Agency or from private clients.