§ Mr. BettsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many Child Support Agency cases are being investigated for overpayment which have been outstanding for(a) one month, (b) two months, (c) three months and (d) six months; and what are the total sums of money involved in each of these categories. [6089]
§ Mr. Andrew MitchellThe information is not available.
Each time a maintenance assessment is reviewed, liability will change and an over or under payment of maintenance may occur.
§ Sir Dudley SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many cases the Child Support Agency is considering at the present time, where a man owes more than £3,000 of maintenance and arrears and has paid less than £50 in four years. [4124]
§ 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 Sir Dudley Smith, dated 27 November 1996:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about Child Support Agency maintenance and arrears.The information you have asked for is not available in precisely the format that you have requested, so I have provided as much as I can. The Agency does not differentiate between the cases it deals with on a gender basis, and I am therefore unable to provide the figures for men who owe more than £3,000 in maintenance. At 31 October 1996, the total number of cases with more than £3,000 of maintenance and arrears outstanding was 101,818.In a large number of these cases the arrears recorded as outstanding will be the result of an interim maintenance assessment. This measure, which sets maintenance at a punitive rate for absent parents (AP) who refuse to co-operate, was frequently used in the first two years of the Agency, but it is now only used as a last resort. It takes no account of an AP's actual financial circumstances. Since April 1995, an interim maintenance assessment is amended to a full maintenance assessment from the date liability starts once the AP co-operates: this almost always produces a much-reduced amount of arrears actually owed.Where maintenance is not paid, the Agency has become increasingly successful in establishing payment by means of deduction from earnings orders and liability orders. I am unable to provide information on the number of cases where less than £50 has been paid in the last four years. Such a specific statistic has not been routinely collected; it could only be provided at disproportionate cost.However, I can tell you that the latest available analysis of the Agency's work indicated that in 75% of cases where a full maintenance assessment has been completed, payment is being made in full or in part. This is based on the assumption that direct payments not via the Agency collection service are payed in full—otherwise parents with care can (and do) raise the matter with the Agency.I hope this is helpful.