§ Mr. ViggersTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what measures are available to the Child Support Agency to enforce payment; and in how many cases these have been invoked in each of the last five years. [153034]
§ Mr. PondThe administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
1014WLetter from Doug Smith to Mr. Peter Viggers, dated 3 March 2004:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary questions about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked what measures are available to the Child Support Agency to enforce payment; and in how many cases these have been invoked in each of he last five years.
Where a non-resident parent chooses not to pay child maintenance we will seek to discuss this by telephone when we will remind them of their legal responsibility. If there is still no adequate response and the non-resident parent is employed we will usually seek to implement, through the employer, a deduction from earnings. If the non-resident parent is self-employed, or has other forms of income, we can take action through the courts. This firstly involves establishing a liability order—normally through the Magistrates Court. When that is established we can then deploy a range of alternative enforcement mechanisms, including:
Levying of distress involving the use of Bailiffs;Establishing a third party debt order—allowing money owed to the debtor to be frozen and sent to us to cover the outstanding debt;Establishing a charging order—registering the debt against certain assets owned by the debtor;Registering a County Court judgement, which may affect the debtors credit rating;Applying for a warrant to commit the debtor to prison or for an order preventing them from holding or obtaining a driving licence.The process and subsequent actions vary slightly in Scotland.In the last four years we have applied a deduction from earnings in the following number of cases. We do not hold reliable data prior to 1999/2000.
Number 1999/2000 121,074 2000/2001 51,673 2001/2002 64,584 2002/2003 113,120 The table below shows the number of cases that were referred by caseworkers for further specialist enforcement action.
Number 1999/2000 7,663 2000/2001 3,561 2001/2002 3,546 2002/2003 8,054 I hope this is helpful.
§ Bob RussellTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will take steps to amend Child Support Agency regulations to disregard from maintenance calculations the service overseas allowances paid to members of Her Majesty's Armed Forces. [157558]
§ Mr. PondNo. Child Support regulations already provide that allowances which are exempt from tax, such as the Local Overseas Allowance, are disregarded for the purposes of maintenance calculations.