§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if the CSA is required to recalculate maintenance liabilities back to the beginning of a claim in cases where a parent with care is shown to have been fraudulently claiming income support for some or all of the period during which the CSA was involved. [10432]
§ Malcolm WicksThe CSA can supersede a maintenance assessment from the date that it came into effect if a parent with care is discovered to have given false information that has resulted in an increase in maintenance liability. In practice, however, few parents with care have sufficient income to affect the maintenance assessment. The discovery that a claim for income support was fraudulent will, therefore, often have no effect on the amount of maintenance due.
§ Norman LambTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints have been made to the Child Support Agency in each of the last five years by hon. Members on behalf of their constituents. [10826]
§ Malcolm WicksThe administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Doug Smith to Norman Lamb, dated 23 November 2001:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Questions to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions about the Child Support Agency.Mr. Smith is unavailable and therefore I am writing to you on his behalf.You asked how many complaints have been made to the Child Support Agency in each of the last five years by honourable Members on behalf of their constituents.Some of the information you have requested is not available, as it is not collected in the format you have asked for.The Agency began counting the number of complaints received from Members of Parliament as a separate statistical figure from July 2000.From July 2000 to September 2001, the number of complaints received by the Agency from Members of Parliament on behalf of their constituents was 6,640.I hope this is helpful.
§ Mr. Allan SimpsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what is the average waiting time between submission of the complaint and completion of the investigation of CSA cases referred to the Independent Case Examiner in the last 12 months. [15650]
§ Malcolm WicksThe Independent Case Examiner's average clearance time, from November 2000 to October 2001, was 33.5 weeks.
§ Mr. HunterTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what was the backlog of Child Support Agency cases awaiting the attention of the Independent Case Examiner at(a) 1 January 2000, (b) 1 July 2001, (c) 1 January 2001 and (d) 1 July 2001. [13726]
§ Malcolm WicksDetails of the Child Support Agency cases which were awaiting the attention of the Independent Case Examiner, on the specified dates, are in the table.
707W
Date Number of cases awaiting initial action Number of cases awaiting investigation of evidence Total 1 January 2000 16 130 146 1 July 2000 152 8 160 1 January 2001 213 36 249 1 July 2001 290 51 341 Current position 0 182 182
§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what recent representations he has received on delays in estimation of absent parents' contributions to child support; [17292]
(2) what measures are available to ensure that parents with care do not lose financially as a result of delayed estimation of absent parents' contributions to child support; [17293]
(3) what targets he has set the Child Support Agency to improve times taken to determine absent parents' contributions to child support; [17291]
(4) when he last discussed with the Chief Executive of the Child Support Agency the time taken to determine absent parents' contributions to child support; [17289]
(5) what assessment he has made of the time taken by the Child Support Agency to determine absent parents' contributions to child support. [17290]
§ Malcolm Wicks[holding answer 21 November 20011: My right hon. Friend holds regular meetings with the Chief Executive of the Child Support Agency, Mr. Doug Smith, to discuss all aspects of Child Support Agency performance. The time taken to complete a child support assessment is monitored on a monthly basis. For information about the latest performance information I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 15 November 2001, Official Report, column 1339. The agency has received 6,375 complaints from customers and 1,584 from Members of Parliament about delays in making maintenance assessments in the last 12 months.
Delays in completing assessments are largely due to the complexity of the current scheme. The simpler child support arrangements to be introduced for the new cases from April 2002 will allow this work to be completed more quickly. We will expect the agency to get child support flowing within six weeks for the majority of applicants.
In common with other agencies, the Child Support Agency compensates clients for financial loss arising from maladministration. Delays caused by the clients themselves, however, and the inevitable length of the current process are not covered by these arrangements.