Child Support Agency (Hansard, 26 June 2003)

§ Maria Eagle

The 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 Mr. Huw Edwards, dated June 2003:

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent Parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.

You ask what criteria determine the award of advance payments by the Child Support Agency in respect of arrears due to a parent with care. In essence there are six criteria; The arrears owed to the parent with care for the period of maladministration must be over 100 and the non resident parent must be making payments of regular maintenance at the current liable amount. He must also have made and be paying an arrears agreement and it would take longer than 26 weeks to clear these arrears. An interest payment will be made if the interest totals 10.00 or more There must be clear evidence that Agency maladministration resulted in a delay, which caused the arrears to accrue. Any delay in part or whole caused by the parent with care or non resident parent will not qualify for an advance payment. The Agency must, on the balance of probabilities, be satisfied that the non resident parent would have complied with the maintenance assessment had it not been for Agency maladministration The parent with care must have shown an interest in the progression of the case during the period of delay An allowance will be made for normal processing times in the calculation of the advance payment. Only time lapsed beyond this point will be considered as delay for payment purposes The parent with care must sign a declaration slip agreeing to the Agency retaining any arrears payments received from the non resident parent relating to the advance payment, or to refund any relevant direct payments.