Child Support Agency (Hansard, 7 July 1998)

§ Mr. Keith Bradley

One of our key aims for the Child Support Agency is to ensure that more non resident parents pay the maintenance they owe. The regular payment of maintenance is central to our strategy as recognition of fathers' continuing responsibilities to their children; to help lone mothers move off income support into work; and to get more money to children in low income working families. We have been looking closely at all aspects of the child support scheme to see where improvements can be made. I refer my hon. Friend to the oral statement made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Security on 6 July 1998,Official Report, columns 739–54.

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mrs. Faith Boardman. She will write to my hon. Friend.

Letter from Faith Boardman to Mr. Harry Barnes, dated 6 July 1998: I am replying to your Parliamentary Questions to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency. I cannot provide precisely all the information that you have requested, but have provided as much as possible from the most recent information available. The Agency is organised into 7 Business Units; figures are available at Business Unit level but not at county level. Derbyshire is dealt with by our Midlands Business Unit, for which information has been given. All parents with care in receipt of a prescribed benefit (Income Support, Family Credit, Income-based Job Seekers Allowance and Disabled Working Allowance) have a requirement to co-operate with the Agency. The large majority of the Agency's live and assessed caseload relate to parents with care in receipt of these benefits. The Department of Social Security Analytical Division publish quarterly a summary of statistics relating to child support. The last report was published on 14 May and showed at 28 February 1998 the Agency had a total of 662,000 parents with care with a full maintenance assessment; of which 564,000 (85%) were in receipt of one of these benefits and therefore required to co-operate with the Agency. The Midlands Business Unit had 108,000 parents with care with a full maintenance assessment, of which 94,000 (87%) were in receipt of a benefit. Child Support Legislation has provisions known as 'Good Cause', which allows parents with care not to co-operate if the Agency finds that they have a good cause not to do so. This may be because we believe that there is a risk of harm or undue distress to the parent with care of any children living with them if we contact the non-resident parent. From the launch of the Agency up until 28 February 1998 the Agency has investigated 669,953 cases were the parent with care had claimed Good Cause; 177,462 cases were accepted as having Good Cause for not co-operating with the Agency. This represents 26% of the cases investigated. Of the remaining cases, the Good Cause application is either withdrawn and the parent with care agrees to co-operate or a Reduced Benefit Direction is referred to Benefits Agency. 447W The imposition of a deduction from earnings order is considered when the non resident parent defaults on an agreement or refuses to come to an agreement. This step is taken as a last resort and every effort is made to secure the compliance of the non-resident parent before a deduction from earnings order is issued. Information on the number of deduction from orders "in force" is not collected, however information is available on the number of deduction from earnings orders issued from April 1993 to November 1997, details are shown below:

Year	Number
1993–94	2,600
1994–95	32,027
1995–96	52,931
1996–97	57,898
	(9,146 from Midlands Business Unit)
1997–98 (to 30.11.97)	45,273
	(8,320 from Midland Business Unit)

We are increasingly becoming more effective in issuing deduction from earnings orders where the non-resident parent fails to make a maintenance payment or reach an agreement for repayment. This is demonstrated by the increase in the average monthly number of orders issued; from 4,825 in 1996/97 to 5,659 in 1997/98.The Agency does not collect information on average processing times for the clearance of maintenance assessments. The Agency measures the clearance of maintenance assessments against a target set by the Secretary of State. For 1998/99 the target is that 65% of new maintenance applications be cleared within 22 weeks. At 31 May 1998 the Agency had cleared 67% of maintenance applications within 22 weeks and the Midlands Business Unit had cleared 59% of maintenance applications within 22 weeks.In 1997/98 the Agency cleared 595,000 maintenance applications—an increase of two-thirds on the 357,000 cleared in 1996/97. At the end of May 1998 our live and assessed caseload stood at 784,160, compared with 609,800 in May 1997 (an increase of 29%) and is expected to rise to around 1.2m by 2003/04.At 30 April 1998, the Midlands Business Unit had 128,160 live and assessed cases. At the same time, that Business Unit's work-on-hand stood at 37,907; approximately 15,000 of which were backlog cases.Any maintenance application which is over 52 weeks old is considered to form part of the Agency's backlog.The Agency has developed and is now implementing a strategy for meeting its undertaking to clear the backlog. All Business Units have put in place operational plans which will guide them towards the achievement of our stated objective of clearing the backlog by 31 March 1999.The total caseload for the Midlands Business Unit of 166,067 equates to around 3 cases per 1,000 people, based on a GB population of around 57.2 million.I hope this is helpful.