Letter from Tony Ward to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 19 July 1995:

In the absence of Miss Chant, the Chief Executive, I am replying to your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about man-hours expended on Child Support Agency business.

An estimated 8,674,568 man-hours were expended on. Child Support Agency business by our own staff in Great Britain in the financial year 1994–95.

Information on the number of man-hours expended in total on matters relating to the Child Support Agency by staff within the Department of Social Security is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

I hope this is helpful.

Letter from Tony Ward to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 19 July 1995:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Questions to the Secretary of State for Social Security about child maintenance paid in full or part, excluding any arrears.

You asked for this information broken down between full maintenance assessments and Category A and D interim maintenance assessments (IMAs). As Category D IMAs were only introduced in April this year and none have so far been issued, we have therefore assumed that you were interested in Category B IMAs which have been used since April 1993. These are imposed when the absent parent fails to provide information on a second partner's income.

Although the information is not available in the specific form you request, I hope you will find the following, which reflects the position as at 29 May, helpful. It relates to payments of regular maintenance and maintenance due for the period before the assessment was completed (known as the initial payment period).

Letter from Tony Ward to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 19 July 1995:

In the absence of Miss Chant, the Chief Executive, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the effect on manpower of moving some work into local child support offices.

As with any transfer of work within an organisation there will be a commensurate movement of resources. This will ensure that staff in local child support offices are properly equipped and trained to complete some maintenance assessments. Proper management controls will be in place to monitor costs arising from the movement of this work.

Letter from Tony Ward to Ms Liz Lynne dated 19 July 1995:

In the absence of Miss Chant, the Chief Executive, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the changes to the Child Support Agency's computer system to maintenance assessments to be carried out locally.

Full access to the child support computer system which will allow staff in local offices to make some maintenance assessments will be introduced in early 1996 and we have asked the Information Technology Services Agency to arrange for this work to be carried out. Details such as the total cost of the plan, quality assurance, security of the system and final rollout will be addressed during the planning process.

Letter from Tony Ward to Mr. Tom Cox, dated 19 June 1995:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the number of Child Support Offices in the United Kingdom.

As at 19 June 1995 there were 320 local Child Support Agency offices in Great Britain. I am unable to provide you with information for the whole of the United Kingdom as the operations of the Agency in Northern Ireland are the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

I hope this is helpful.

Letter from Tony Ward to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 19 July 1995:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the number of parents with care who cease to receive benefit within four weeks of being contacted by the Child Support Agency.

During 1994/95 over 60,000 parents with care ceased their claim to Income Support within four weeks of action by the Child Support Agency. The table at annex A shows a monthly breakdown of this figure.

I hope this is helpful.

Letter from Tony Ward to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 19 July 1995:

In the absence of Miss Chant, the Chief Executive, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the number of parents with care who have moved off benefit following the payment of child maintenance assessed by the Child Support Agency (Maintenance Cessations).

The information that you have requested is shown in the table below.

I hope this is helpful.

Letter from Tony Ward to Mr. Ken Purchase, dated 19 July 1995:

In the absence of Miss Chant, the Chief Executive, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency's performance in replying to correspondence.

The Agency does not use a charter standard for measuring the time taken to reply to MP's correspondence. Instead, it follows the Departmental target of replying to MP's letters within 20 days. The table below shows the performance against this target which highlights the improvements achieved over recent months.

The Agency has a charter standard to reply to written enquiries from the public "within 10 working days". During 1994/95 the Agency replied to 35% of written enquiries within the charter standard.

I hope this is helpful.

Letter from Ann Chant to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 19 July 1995:

I wrote to you in reply on 13 June in reply to PQ2406/1993/94 which concerned the benefit savings achieved by the Child Support Agency during 1994/95.

Unfortunately there was a small typographical error in the annex attached to my letter. The entry in the table "Income Support exceeded rate of benefit" should have read "Maintenance exceeded rate of benefit". Please find a corrected copy of the table attached.

Please accept my apologies for this error.