Child Support (Hansard, 11 February 2000)

§ Angela Eagle

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

Letter from Faith Boardman to Mr. Tom Levitt, dated 10 February 2000: I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency. You ask about the target time for the serving of papers on a non-resident parent following an application for child maintenance. The serving of papers has been taken to mean either the initial contact with a non-resident parent or the taking of enforcement action. In view of this I have covered both of these aspects in my reply. When a parent with care makes an application for child support, a maintenance enquiry form is issued to the non-resident parent named on the application form. This is to establish the non-resident parent's financial and domestic circumstances. There is no target time for this procedure as much depends on the information provided by the parent with care and whether tracing the non-resident parent is necessary. Although there is no target for the issue of a maintenance enquiry form the Secretary of State has set the Agency a target time for clearing 65% of maintenance applications within 20 weeks. This is a challenging target to which the Agency only achieved 50% (December 1999), however this can be viewed against a 25% increase of applications made during the last three months of 1999. 324W We continually strive to meet all targets set by the Secretary of State. Once an assessment is made and payment is received it is passed to the parent with care within 10 working days of receipt in 98.6% of cases. The Agency's policy is that, if necessary, it should use the powers given by Parliament to enforce payment of child maintenance. Where normal collection arrangements fail and arrears accrue, the Agency will take firm and prompt enforcement action if the non-resident parent does not make an acceptable offer to pay. There is no target time for this action to be taken as each case is considered on its merits and the Agency will take account of the likely effect of enforcement action on the welfare of any children involved. The benefit to the child of payment being made may also be a deciding factor. Under provision of the Child Support Act 1995 the Agency has been able to arrange for liability orders granted by magistrates' courts to be entered in the County Court Register of Judgements. This register is used extensively by credit reference agencies when establishing an individual's creditworthiness. Entries in the register may result in credit being refused, a particular deterrent for self employed Non-Resident Parents. In the last reporting year, April 1998 to March 1999, the Agency applied for 3,968 liability orders. I hope this is helpful.