§ Mr. AlexanderTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many compensation payments from the Child Support Agency have been awarded since its establishment of(a) under £100, (b) £101 to £500, (c) £501 to £1,000 and (d) £1,001 to £5,000; and what has been the total amount paid in compensation payments. [111437]
§ Angela EagleThe 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 Mrs. Faith Boardman to Mr. Douglas Alexander, dated February 2000:
303WI am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency.You ask about the number of compensation payments that have been awarded since the establishment of the Agency within certain pay-bands. The Special Payments section was introduced in 1995 and the data provided has been given from April of that year.I am sorry I am not able to give you the information in the format you requested. Information that is available is provided in a table at the attached Annex.The second table provides figures for advance payments of maintenance. These are payments made to the parents with care to provide redress where maladministration has caused substantial arrears to accrue. A payment is made which is equivalent to the amount of maintenance the parent with care would have received had maladministration not taken place. These payments are subsequently recovered from future maintenance payments made by the non-resident parent.The number of compensation payments has increased as a result of our action to clear the backlog of maintenance applications which were over 52 weeks old. The number of these cases currently stands at 39,246, compared with over 225,000 which were outstanding at the end of March 1997.Additionally, we have increased our customer awareness of special payments by advising them, where appropriate, how to apply. This has also had an effect on the number of compensatory payments made.
Breakdown of compensatory payments into pay-bands £ 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1 1999–2000 Under £250 63 455 1,341 3,630 2,257 £250–£499.50 42 136 311 690 256 £500–£999.99 37 180 205 327 118 £1,000–£4,999.99 41 203 266 643 206 Over £5,000 3 9 13 225 64 Total 186 983 2,136 5,515 2,901 Total amount paid in year 114,979 655,821 1,101,313 4,373,295 1,471,955
Advance payments of maintenance Number of Payments Total amount paid (£) 1998–99 151 458,206 1999–20001 216 395,323 1 Up to 30 September 1999